Other Worlds than These
by Bleachhead88
Summary: An AU story that picks up in episode 271.  Ichigo has just been "killed," by Ulquiorra and this time, Inoue's cries don't bring him back.  How will the rest of the battle with Aizen play out without their hero now?  Obviously, warning of character death.
1. Chapter 1

"…Other Worlds Than These"

A/N: Hello everyone. So here we have an extremely AU story. It begins in the middle of episode 271, so if you're not that far yet, then here there be spoilers! You have been warned…

Also, let's get this out of the way… I do not own Bleach and Ichigo would be rather glad for this in this story.

This story is finished, but I am taking my time with the edits so I will be regularly updating with new chapters at least once a week, possibly more often.

Along with that, I have a quick request. Is there anyone out there that would like to Beta for me? It irritates me when I go back and read my stuff and find stupid mistakes but I have been having difficulty finding a Beta that will actually respond to me or get back to me. Just throwing that out there.

For anyone interested, the title is taken from Stephen King's, _The Gunslinger_.

Also, I will apologize for long passages that will appear in this story that are directly taken from the show. There are some things that stay the same and I felt needed to be kept in the story for completeness sake.

So, let the universe alter and our story begin…

Chapter 1

Inoue's cry for Kurosaki-kun to save them cut through the air. Ulquiorra paused in front of Ishida who was now lying on his back, struggling to get up after the last toss that the Arrancar had delivered to his already battered body. The Espada glanced back over his shoulder at the girl and saw her honey colored hair whipping about in the wind as she stared with wide, tear filled eyes at him and the wreckage of her friend that he had created.

His gaze shifted sideways to take in the prone body of Kurosaki Ichigo, still encased in Inoue's healing dome. The body continued to lie there, unmoving, unchanged in any way. "I told you, woman," Ulquiorra said softly. "You cannot change his fate. The man that you entrusted your life to is dead."

Inoue glanced back at Ichigo as more tears poured from her eyes. His blank eyes were still staring unseeingly towards her, completely devoid of life. "Kuro…saki…kun," she whispered to him. There was no response.

Slowly, Inoue reached up and brushed the tears from her eyes. With a swallow, she forced the flood of more tears back down as she turned to face Ulquiorra again and slowly stood up. "Please," she said to the Espada softly. "Let Ishida-kun go. I'll stay here with you."

"Inoue-san!" Ishida cried as he finally managed to sit up. He was about to climb to his feet when Ulquiorra tail lashed out at him and wrapped around his throat. He lifted Ishida from the ground to dangle in front of him in just the same manner he had done to Ichigo before he had killed him.

"No!" Inoue cried, but remained where she was. "Please! You don't need to kill him too!"

Ishida gasped as he tried to speak, but was unable to find enough air to do so. His fingers were clinging onto the Espada's tail, ineffectually trying to pry it off. Ulquiorra turned them both so that they were in profile to Inoue. He raised a finger slowly and pointed at Ishida's chest. The Quincy's eyes grew large as he finally realized that he was also about to die just like Ichigo had a few moments ago.

Ishida was mentally berating himself for having engaged Ulquiorra in the first place. He had known from the start that he wouldn't be able to defeat the Espada; especially given what he had just witnessed him do to Kurosaki. But he had thought that Inoue would have been able to bring Kurosaki back. He realized now that he had come to depend on Inoue's healing abilities just as much as Inoue had come to depend on Ichigo being able to save her. He had turned a blind eye to her weaknesses, and now it was about to cost him and her their lives.

He thought to himself how if he had simply grabbed her and retreated as soon as they had seen the Arrancar kill Kurosaki, then they might have escaped. Attacking this beast to give Inoue time was the worst thing that he could have done.

_I'm sorry, Kurosaki_, he thought. _I promised to protect her with my own body and I have failed._

"Please, don't do this," Inoue said softly as she began to walk towards them slowly.

Ulquiorra looked at her as she approached them. "You are no longer of any use, woman," he told her. "Why should I spare either of you?"

"Because there is no need to kill us either. But if you want to kill me, then fine. But please, let Ishida-kun go. I… I can't bear to lose another friend today."

Ulquiorra watched as she made her way closer. He could hear the Quincy struggling for breath, but he was in no danger of dying at the moment unless he so willed it. Slowly, he lowered his finger and turned his full attention of the girl.

"Woman, are you afraid now?"

Inoue stopped and stood there looking up at the Espada for a moment. She wanted to look to Ishida, to see if he was still all right, to see if he had come up with any plan. But she forced herself to only look at Ulquiorra. She had been putting her trust in everyone else too much and if she was going to save at least this one, she was going to have to stand on her own this time.

"I am not afraid," she said softly, echoing her previous answer to this question.

"Your friend is dead; I hold the life of his one now. You had said that your heart was with your friends; how can you not be afraid if I am killing off that heart?"

Inoue swallowed before saying, "You did kill off a piece of my heart when you killed Kurosaki-kun. But I am not afraid because I know that you will not kill any of the others if I ask this of you."

The green and yellow eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at her closely. "Why would I do this?" he asked her.

"Because… because you are interested in me. You want to know how it is that I can stand in your presence and not be fearful. If you kill off all of my friends, then you won't be able to find out. If you kill them, you will be killing me as well, and then you will never get to see my heart like you said you wanted to see."

There was a long silence then as the two stood there, staring at each other across the barren sand. Suddenly Ulquiorra flipped his tail and sent Ishida flying towards the hole that he had brought Inoue and himself up through. Ishida landed heavily several meters away from the hole. He coughed at his sudden ability to take a deep breath after having had his airway restricted for so long.

"Leave here, Quincy," Ulquiorra spoke without looking at him. His eyes were still locked with Inoue's.

"Inoue-san," Ishida gasped in a horse voice as he painfully picked himself up from the ground. He managed to make it to a wobbly stand, but he knew that there was very little fight left in him. He was covered in bruises and knew that several bones had been broken. His right arm was wrapped around his chest, trying to keep some crack ribs from moving too much. He glanced down at where his left hand should have been and saw the bloody stump that Ulquiorra had left.

"Please go, Ishida-kun," Inoue said in a soft, resigned voice. She kept her eyes locked with the Espada in front of her. She had one arm wrapped around her body as if she were using it to hold herself together, but Ishida knew that look in her eyes and she was determined to go through with this. She was determined to sacrifice herself to save him.

"Inoue-san, I can't leave you here," he said even as he felt his consciousness beginning to ebb. He wasn't going to be able to remain standing for much longer in this condition.

"Please," she said again. This time she finally turned her eyes to him. They were once again filling with tears as their eyes met. Ishida felt himself take in a breath at the overwhelming sadness that was behind those eyes. But it wasn't sadness for herself; it was for him, for the loss of Ichigo, for all the suffering that her friends had so recently gone through for her sake. She couldn't bear to have any of them suffering a moment more for her.

"Inoue-san," he said almost as a sigh as he realized that he was not going to be able to save her, but she was saving him. If he fought now, he would die and that would tear her apart. If he left, though, it would tear him apart. He couldn't leave her to this creature. But there wasn't a choice now. She wouldn't flee if he used the last of his energy to attack the Espada, so trying to use himself as a sacrifice wouldn't work in this case either.

With one last desperate glance, he looked over to where Ichigo was still lying. Inoue had never dismissed the healing dome around him, but he also was still just as unresponsive as ever. He looked back at Inoue and said, "All right, Inoue-san. I see I am left with no choice."

More tears spilled from her eyes as she took her bottom lip in her teeth to keep from sobbing. But Ishida saw it wasn't because he was leaving her, but because she was so glad that he was going to survive.

"Go then, Quincy. And if you ever return, I will destroy you," Ulquiorra said as he slowly began to transform back into his human form.

"I have one last request," Ishida said. "Let me take Kurosaki's body back with me."

Inoue stifled another sob as she looked to Ulquiorra with pleading eyes for him to allow this.

"What do I care what you do with him?" he said. "Take his carcass and go, Quincy. Leave here and leave Hueco Mundo."

Ishida swallowed and gathered his remaining dregs of energy before walking over to where Ichigo was lying. When he reached his friend's side he paused and looked down through the golden haze of the rejection field at the dead, blank eyes that still stared off to the side. "How could you fail her like this, Kurosaki?" Ishida said softly.

The two fairies suddenly stopped their work at the rejection field and flashed up to hover around Ishida's arm. He looked down at the small yellow glow that extended past where Ulquiorra had torn his hand off and was amazed to see the appendage rematerializing. Ishida glanced back at her and saw her still trying not to cry as she stared down at Ichigo's body. "I'm so sorry, Inoue-san," he said to her, unsure how to thank her for her final healing act on him.

As soon as the healing was finished, the fairies zoomed back to return to Inoue's hairpins. He then bent over and clumsily hefted the body onto his shoulder. It was a difficult process being so weak and sore, and with Ichigo being heavier than himself. But he managed to drape the unresponsive body over his shoulder before he finally turned and looked back at Inoue.

He wanted to tell her that it was going to be all right, that he was going to come back and rescue her and that he was going to find a way to bring Kurosaki back. But he couldn't tell her any of these things because he knew that they were all lies and he just couldn't bear to tell her any more lies.

"Inoue-san…"

"Thank you, Ishida-kun," she said to him as she took a step backward towards Ulquiorra. "Thank you," she repeated with another step. She now was nearly touching the Espada with her back. "Tell the others thank you as well, Ishida-kun. I… I want them to know… Please tell them all that my heart will always be with them. And you too, Ishida-kun."

"Ino… Orihime…" He swallowed hard and looked away a moment and gave his glasses a nudge with his newly healed hand before turning back and looking her squarely in the eyes. "Orihime, I want to you know that I love you and that my heart will also always be with you."

With that, he turned and vanished from sight to reappear for a split second at the cusp of the hole in the top of Las Noches. He glanced back at her and their eyes met one last time before he leapt through the hole and out of sight.

"How interesting," Ulquiorra said. "They all risked so much to save you, but only one was willing to sacrifice his life."

"You're wrong," Inoue said as she continued to stare at the place where she had last seen Ishida. "You're very wrong. All of them, every last one of my friends, would have laid their lives down, just like Kurosaki-kun did, to save me. But Ishida-kun realized that I wasn't going to let him do that. He knew that, even if he did sacrifice himself, it would not save me. This was the only way for a piece of me to be free, because he took that piece with him when you allowed him to leave."

Both of them stood in silence for a time before Ulquiorra spoke again. "If that is true, then I have not held up my part of the bargain."

Inoue turned around and looked up at him, wondering what he could possibly mean. He continued. "He told you that you also had a piece of his heart with you. By keeping you here, I have not completely freed him."

Inoue gasped as she suddenly realized what the Espada was saying. She hadn't really let Ishida's last words to her sink in yet. She was just too relieved that he was going to survive for her to be able to process those words. Now she realized what it was that he had said to her. He had told her that he loved her… For the first time, she understood now that she had also been condemning Ishida to this capture because he had given his heart to her. Now he would be living in as much pain from that separation as she would be to be separated from him.

She let out one more gasp as that last thought really settled into her brain. She knew now, now that he was gone and lost to her, that she loved him too. Not just as a friend as she had thought, but really, truly loved him. But it was too late now. He was gone and she was to remain with this monster for however much longer she had left to live.

"I see," Ulquiorra said as he looked into her eyes as she processed all of this information. "I hold both your heart and his in my hands. I have power over both of your lives just by holding onto one of you."

"Please, get this over with," Inoue said as she looked down at the ground between them, no longer wishing to hear any of this. She was just beginning to see that she might have made the wrong decision.

He stood there for another long pause, looking down at the top of her head, before he turned and walked away from her. "You may leave, woman," he said as he walked away.

Inoue's head snapped up as she stared, unbelievingly at his back.

"Leave here and follow him before I change my mind. You no longer interest me now that I understand. You humans are so frail that you have to connect with each other to be able to survive. You need each other's strength. With that combined power, you are able to do things that you should never be able to do." He paused now in his walk and glanced back at her. Their eyes met before he said, "You have given me a small amount of respect for you humans, take it and leave."

With that, he turned again and walked out into the barren desert of Hueco Mundo, alone.

Inoue stared after him for a long while, uncertain what had just happened. She couldn't believe that he was just letting her go. She feared that as soon as she began to believe it, he would change his mind and return for her. But he just continued to walk away. His figure was growing small now as the distance between them steadily increased.

As she became light headed, she realized that she had been holding her breath for some time now. She suddenly gulped in air hurriedly, attempting to catch her breath again. She blinked back a few tears and looked one last time at Ulquiorra's diminishing figure. Finally, she turned around and ran for the hole in the roof.

When she reached it, she peered down and saw just how terribly far down the ground was from her. She had a fleeting moment of panic that she was now about to be left up there, all alone, forever. Ulquiorra had walked away and Ishida had left, thinking that she was now Ulquiorra's property and thus unreachable. But as she took several deep breaths she began to think a little more clearly.

"Ishida-kun brought me up here with some platform he was able to make using spirit particles. Maybe I could use my shield for the same purpose." She called out her shield and had her fairies hold it out flat over the hole. Gingerly, she stepped out onto it and found that it did indeed work the way she had hoped.

She glanced back in the direction that Ulquiorra had headed, but he was no longer within sight. "Thank you, Ulquiorra-san," she said quietly and then directed her fairies to descend.

XXX

Rukia stood before Chelute Rudbornn, a giant tree like Arrancar, and replied to him, "You are the one with the flawed strategy." She was kneeling in front of his with her Zanpakuto driven into the ground. A path of ice spread from her blade to the roots of the Arrancar and was creeping up them.

"Cursed Wretch. Was this what you were plotting?" he accused her.

"You bet," she readily replied. "That combo was just to draw your attention away from me. I figured out what to do when I realized you grow soldiers like a tree bearing fruit. All I had to do was freeze the branches. Everyone knows a frozen tree can't bear fruit. You should never have let me see how your ability works."

"Damn it!"

Suddenly a giant hand came out of no where and smashed right through the frozen Arrancar, shattering him into a million pieces.

"What the?" Rukia gasped as the giant Arrancar attached to that hand sailed over the wall and landed on the ground below. She, Chad, and Renji were quick to follow his motion and landed on the sand below in front of him.

"What the hell!" Renji exclaimed.

"That's…" Chad uttered as he waited for the dust to settle. "Yammy?"

"Yammy?" Renji asked. "Isn't that…?"

But a gasp from Rukia interrupted him as she spun around and looked up in the distance. The boys followed her line of sight and saw a glowing blue disk descending from the hole in the roof of Las Noches.

"Ishida!" Rukia gasped. She glanced back at Chad and Renji. She knew that something was wrong but she couldn't go and investigate while they were facing such a large enemy.

Renji spun back around and faced off to Yammy, pulling Zabimaru in front of him. "Go see what's happening, Rukia," he told her. "Sado and I will keep this guy busy."

She looked between the two of them and then nodded once before taking off towards where Ishida was descending.

XXX

Ishida had called out his platform of spirit particles as soon as he had disappeared through the hole in the fake sky, controlling his descent. It was a long way down, which meant that he had a long time to think about everything that had just happened. He had failed… he had failed them all. Not only had he failed to protect Inoue as he had promised Kurosaki, but he had also failed to protect him as well.

The body of his friend was becoming very heavy in more ways than one. He knelt down on his disk and gently lowered Ichigo's body from his shoulder. He laid him on the disk at his feet and cradled the body in his arms. For the first time, Ishida finally took a good hard look at what remained of his friend.

Ishida felt a wave of sorrow as he finally looked directly into those unseeing brown eyes. He stared down at those eyes for a long time, thinking that somehow, any moment, they were going to blink and Ichigo would be there again with that old determined, yet burdened look in his eyes. But nothing happened, Ichigo was gone from them and this time, it did not look like he was coming back.

Ishida couldn't bear to look at the hole that was in the center of Ichigo's chest. He simply swallowed and looked straight ahead of him again. It hurt far too much to see his friend like that. Ichigo was dead, and that meant that all of their hopes of defeating Aizen had died along with him.

In failing to protect Ichigo, he had failed to protect everyone. He now held all of Karakura town's last hope of survival in his arms. The last hope is now gone, forever.

He tried to swallow the lump back in his throat, but it wouldn't go away this time. A tear began to form at the corner of his eye that he knew he was not going to be able to blink away. He was slightly stunned when he suddenly came to halt on the sand. He had reached the bottom. Now all he had left to do was find the others and tell them of his failure.

"Ishida!" he heard a voice that he really did not want to hear right then call. The call had come from behind him so the small Shinigami would not be able to see yet what he was holding in his arms.

"Kuchiki-san," he sighed as he slowly stood up, holding Ichigo in his arms. He closed his eyes as he turned around to face her. He could hear her hurried steps towards him falter and suddenly stop still several meters away.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at Rukia. She was standing with her mouth slightly open and eyes locked on the form in Ishida's arms. "No," she finally breathed after a long silence. "No, it can't be… he can't…" she looked up at met Ishida's eye's begging him with her look to tell her that it wasn't true. That she had it wrong and things were not as bad as they appeared to be.

But she saw the same pained expression in his eyes that she knew was in hers and understood that it was all true. "Ichigo," she heard herself sob as she collapsed to the ground where she stood. She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't hardly breath with the weight of sorrow and despair that she was suddenly being crushed by.

Ishida couldn't hold it back any longer at the sight of the strong willed, determined, hot headed Shinigami weeping like that in the sand in front of him. The tears that had threatened to fall from his eyes finally began to flow.

"Kuchiki-san… Rukia… I'm so sorry. I was too late. I should have gotten there sooner. I should have tried harder to give Inoue more time… I…"

"Inoue," Rukia suddenly gasped in the middle of her break down. Her head snapped up and her tears stopped for a moment as she looked around. "Where is she? Why isn't she with you?" Rukia demanded as she climbed to her feet again and began to advance on Ishida again.

"Rukia, I…" he couldn't take it any more. He collapsed where he was standing, still clutching Ichigo's body to his chest, and began to weep where he sat. "She saved me…" he gasped between sobs. "She sacrificed herself… made a deal with Ulquiorra to let me go if she stayed with him… And I left… I left her there…" he couldn't speak anymore as he was wracked with grief.

He had expected Rukia to become enraged with him at this point. After all, it was his fault that two of her best friends were now lost to them. He was a little startled to feel her small arms wrap around his shoulders. She held him as he continued to sob. He hadn't cried like this since he had been very small. He knew he had cried when his mother had died, because he could remember his father chastising him for it. Though he couldn't actually remember crying. It was the death of his grandfather that had been the only time that he could remember crying like this.

He knew his father wouldn't want to hear his grief, so he had gone out to the waterfall where his grandfather had taught him how to be a Quincy and would cry himself to sleep out there every evening. He would wake up exhausted around midnight and stumble home to sleep in his own bed, but he had done that for weeks.

Now, all of those feelings came rushing back to him. He had lost both his best friend and the woman that he loved, even if she never did return that love, all at once. And it had been his fault, again. He failed to protect his grandfather all those years ago, and now he had failed to protect his friends.

He wanted Rukia to yell at him, to tell him how horrible he was. He thought it was well within her rights to demand retribution of him and challenge him. He wanted her to blame him and take it out on him so that at least she could feel like some justice had been done. But she was there, holding him, comforting him and sharing his grief as if he had had nothing to do with their loss.

"Ishida-kun!" he heard a very soft, distant cry far above him.

He felt his chest contract even tighter at the sound. He was hearing her voice now; she was condemning him even now from wherever she was. Maybe Ulquiorra had already killed her and her spirit was being sent to haunt him. He deserved much worse than that.

"Ishida-kun!" her voice called again, this time closer and louder.

He felt Rukia shift and then give a startled gasp. She released her hold on Ishida and moved away. He continued to kneel where he was, holding Ichigo's body, listening to another cry from Inoue from beyond the grave.

"Inoue!" Rukia cried, finally getting Ishida to look up.

There, rapidly descending from the sky, was Inoue. She reached the bottom and stumbled off of her shield right into Rukia's arms.

Ishida felt his mouth open in utter disbelief as he watched the two girls embrace tightly, both of them crying. "Inoue, what happened? How'd you get away?" Rukia was asking.

Inoue couldn't answer through her tears of happiness to see that Rukia was still all right. She had worried that, even though Ishida had managed to leave unharmed, that her other friends had all ready been hurt.

She finally opened her eyes through her tears and saw Ishida kneeling on the ground staring up at her completely stunned. She quickly pulled herself from Rukia's embrace and rushed over to him. "Ishida-kun! It's all right! He let me go. He isn't going to hurt us anymore."

He sat there, gapping at her as she collapsed in front of him and babbled. She suddenly became worried that something had happened to him with his complete lack of reaction. "Ishida-kun. Ishida-kun, please, say something," she said.

Suddenly she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Ishida-kun, I'm so sorry I did that to you. I didn't realize what I was doing when I had you leave. I didn't understand how painful it was for you until after you had gone. I'm sorry, Ishida-kun… I'm so sor…"

"Inoue-san," he finally spoke and pulled back from her slightly. "You're… you're all right… that man… he, he let you go?"

She looked at him and nodded excitedly. "It was what you had said before you left, Ishida-kun. You saved me, in the end. I had meant to save you, but you still managed to save me."

"What I…?" he began to say and then he remembered what his last words to her had been:

_ "Orihime, I want to you know that I love you and that my heart will also always be with you."_

"…But, why? Why would that cause someone like him to change his mind? What…?"

"Does it matter, Ishida?" Rukia said quietly behind Inoue.

Then both tore their eyes from one another to look up at her. "Inoue is back with us. At least we have managed to keep that much of our word to Ichigo."

Ishida swallowed as he suddenly realized that he was still cradling the body in his arms.

Inoue quickly leaned back and looked down at the grotesque sight. Her hand came up to her mouth as she tried to keep from crying again.

But just then a yell cut through the air, grabbing all of their attention. "Ira!" The cry was followed by a blast of red light and a rush of power bowled into them from the direction Rukia had just left.

"Sado, Renji." Rukia gasped as she spun around, realizing that the situation she had left must have just gotten worse.

Ishida released his hold on Ichigo and slowly stood, looking off towards the explosion. In the heart of the red wall of reiatsu, he could see a figure rapidly growing larger.

"No," Rukia gasped. "How can that be?"

"What is that?" Inoue asked as she also got to her feet.

"Yammy," Rukia said. "I left Sado and Renji to take care of him when he didn't appear to be too difficult."

Ishida glanced down at Ichigo's body before he said, "Inoue-san, please, stay here. Kuchiki-san and I will take care of this."

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue gasped as she spun around.

Ishida shook his head. "No, Inoue-san. Please don't get involved in this." He hesitated a moment and then pressed on. "I nearly lost you once. I couldn't bear to have you in danger again so soon."

Inoue looked up at him with a trembling lip and said, "Please be careful, Ishida-kun." She looked to Rukia then and said, "You too, Kuchiki-san."

Rukia nodded once in determination. "I promise you, Inoue, you won't lose any more friends today."

She also took one last look at Ichigo's body and then looked up to Ishida. They nodded to each other and then vanished from Inoue's sight, flying off to help their other friends with the monstrous Arrancar.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you for the reviews so far. This chapter was pretty close to being ready to go when I posted the first one, but it will be a little while for chapter 3. Until then, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 2

Rukia was the first to arrive on the scene. Chad was standing over Renji who appeared to have just been beaten pretty badly. The teen had his right arm pressed up against Yammy's fist, trying to hold back the punch that had obviously been meant to finish Renji off.

"First dance, White Lotus," Rukia called, stabling her Zanpakuto down in four parallel points. A wave of ice rushed forward and caught Yammy's arm. Chad stumbled backward out of the path of ice and grabbed Renji's arm to pull him further out of harms way as well.

"Eh?" Yammy said as he lazily turned his head towards Rukia. "What's that supposed to do?" he said as he effortlessly pulled his hand back, shattering the ice that had encased it.

"Licht Regen," Ishida's voice suddenly sounded from above.

Yammy just had time to look up at the rain of blue light that was falling down on him before he became obscured from everyone's vision.

Ishida touched down beside Renji and Chad. "Abarai, are you all right?" he asked the Shinigami.

Renji sat up stiffly and spat out a mouth of blood before saying, "That's twice now you've showed off your great timing, Quincy."

Ishida reached down and offered Renji a hand which the injured Vice-captain took. "How about you start showing up a little sooner next time?" Renji said as Ishida pulled him to a stand again.

"Ishida, where's Ichigo and Inoue?" Chad asked him.

Ishida looked at him, not sure what to say, but was saved from answering by a howl of anger from the cloud of dust that his attack just created. A sudden blast of red cero cleared the area so that they could see that Yammy was still completely unscathed.

"Not a scratch!" Renji exclaimed.

Ishida shook his head to himself. He hadn't expected his attack to finish this powerful Espada off, but he had hoped that he might have done at least a little damage. He took a step forward and suddenly gasped in pain. He began to pitch forward while grabbing his side but Chad's quick reflexes caught him before he hit the ground.

"Ishida!" Chad exclaimed.

Ishida shook his head, "I'm sorry, Sado," he said, as he stiffly straightened again. "I'm still a little battered from my last fight."

He knew that he had a few cracked ribs from his fight against Ulquiorra not very long ago. Not to mention a few other scrapes and bruises. Just firing an arrow right now was quite painful because of a sprang in his right wrist. The tension that his bow put on that injury was quite terrible and that Licht Regen technique he just used had nearly snapped his already weakened tendons.

Rukia suddenly appeared beside them as well. "Renji, are you all right?"

He sighed as he wiped some more blood from his nose and said, "Yeah. How about it then?"

"We must stop him," Chad said as he morphed his left arm with the white and red armor.

"No choice," Ishida said, summoning his bow again.

Instantly Rukia, Renji, and Ishida took off. They began to swarm around Yammy, moving too fast for him to keep up with their movements. "Eh, what's this?" he asked. Then he spied Ishida.

"Four eyed twink!" he exclaimed and tried to reach out and grab the Quincy. But Ishida moved out of his reach before his hand closed. As Yammy was reaching for Ishida, Chad ran up from the side while Yammy was distracted.

Chad slammed his fist into the ground, throwing up a plume of sand into Yammy's face. As soon as his vision was obscured, Renji sailed in from behind with Zabimaru ahead of him, "Hikotsu Taiho!" he cried.

But Yammy grabbed a hold of the snake Zanpakuto with one hand and deflected the blast. "You're really annoying!" Yammy exclaimed and threw a punch at Renji, knocking him back and crashing into a pillar.

"That's one, now where's four eyes?" Yammy said with a sneer as he looked for the one that had injured him earlier.

As he spoke he turned his head find himself looking straight at Ishida and a drawn Seele Schneider aimed for his eye. Ishida fired the moment that Yammy turned his head. The blade had just left his bow when Yammy's right hand slapped Ishida out of the sky, sending him sailing back to land heavily in the sand.

The blade, however, found its mark and buried itself in Yammy's right eye. The giant roared in pain as he started to stamp backward while his tail whipped about him. "Ah!" Yammy cried. "My eye! That hurt you damn sprite!" he screamed.

He whipped about in pain before he noticed that Chad was coming at him again. Just as Chad pulled back to release another shot at Yammy, the Espada lashed his tail out and caught Chad in the side, hurling him back and out of range.

Yammy managed to pluck the blade from his eye by now and tossed the offending splinter to the ground. His eye was slightly bloodshot, but it didn't appear to have received too much damage. "Where is that punk?" Yammy said as he turned about, looking for Ishida.

He saw Rukia then and said, "Well, you're still left here."

Rukia gasped as she realized that she was his target now and bolted forward, trying to hide from him under his massive body. "Hey, where did you go?" Yammy said as he started to look around. "Oh," he said as he looked between his many sets of legs and saw her running away. "Do you think you can get away from me by doing that?" he asked her.

He began to kick his legs in towards her, forcing her to jump and dodge. Just when she thought that she had cleared his kicks, his back leg bent up and hit her, sending her flying up into the air. Suddenly Yammy's hand reached out and snatched her out of the air.

"I caught you!" Yammy exclaimed. "You're the last one until I can get my hands on that four eyed brat. I have plans to ground him into dust for what he did earlier."

Rukia gasped and struggled in Yammy's grip. "You're not getting away," Yammy told her with a laugh. "Don't struggle," he told her. "It's pretty hard holding onto you without crushing you."

Rukia glared down at him but continued to struggle. "Now then… how should I kill you?" Yammy put a finger to his head as if in thought. "Crushing you like this wouldn't be fun at all. But I would like to go find that other one right away. So tell me, how would you like me to kill you? I may look frightening, but I really am quite generous towards weaklings."

Suddenly Rukia managed to break her right hand free and held it up towards Yammy's face. "Sokatsui!" she yelled. A blast of blue erupted from her palm and hit Yammy in the face.

"Oh! That hurt!" Yammy yelled as he brought his other hand up to rub at the side of his face. "That's the second time you worms managed to hurt me!"

Rukia gasped in surprise when she saw that he wasn't harmed at all from her point blank shot. "That hurt so much," Yammy yelled as he pulled back his arm. "That it made me lose my grip!" He released his hand then and threw Rukia through the air.

Rukia realized that she was in trouble as the air pressure around her was too great for her to right herself. She was going to slam into the ground below and at this velocity it could very likely kill her.

"Kuchiki-san!" Ishida yelled as he used his Hirenkyaku to catch up with her. A plume of dust filled the air where Yammy had thrown Rukia.

"That was boring," Yammy said. He began to look around him. "Now, where's that other one?"

"That would be me," Ishida said as the dust settled around him and Rukia. He was still holding her in his arms but was carefully setting her back down now that the dust was settling. He had a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth and was squinting through his partly swollen left eye. As soon as he released his hold on Rukia, he grabbed the left side of his torso and held it to keep it from shifting too much as he turned so that he was directly facing Yammy.

"You!" Yammy snapped at him. "You're the one that tried to blow me up before."

"My mistake," Ishida said, adjusting his glasses with his free hand. "I shouldn't have left until I was sure I had finished the job.

"I'm going to kill you!" Yammy screamed in anger as he opened his mouth and formed a cero.

Ishida reached over and grabbed Rukia, taking them out of the path to the devastating blast. When he touched down again, he gasped and gripped his side a little tighter.

"Ishida!" Rukia exclaimed as she caught his arm and helped to keep him upright.

"It's all right, Kuchiki-san," he gasped as he tried to wave her off.

"Quite moving around!" Yammy yelled at them and came charging at them.

This time Rukia pulled Ishida's arm over her shoulders and used her Shunpo to move them out of the way. "We can't just keep dodging," Ishida said through gritted teeth as they paused again.

"Sado and Renji are still out and you're not in good shape either," Rukia told him as she moved them again out away from another attack. "There's not much else we can do."

"Hold still!" Yammy yelled and brought out another cero.

Rukia staggered slightly as she moved to dodge again. They weren't directly in the blast when it went off, but they were close enough that they were tossed through the air by the shockwave. They cried out as they were thrown back and skidded to a halt just a short distance apart from each other.

"Ish…ida," Rukia gasped as she rolled over onto her side to see where he had landed.

He was curled on his side with his back to her. His arms were wrapped tightly around his torso and he was gasping for breath. "Ishida," she said again, crawling to her hands and knees to try and make it to him.

"No," he gasped. "Just get out of here, Kuchiki-san."

She watched as his body trembled a moment as he tried to take another deep breath. "I… can't move," he nearly whispered.

The ground around them was shaking as Yammy advanced towards them. "Ishida, we have to move," she said as she started to crawl for him. "I promised Inoue that she wouldn't lose any more friends today." Tears were starting to form at the corners of her eyes at the memory. If she didn't get them out of there soon, she was going to break that promise.

Ishida tried to move at the reminder of that promise, but as he shifted, the fragments of his ribs ground inside, coming dangerously close to stabbing his lung. He stifled a scream of pain and was stilled again as he tried to breath without moving his ribs. It was an impossible mission.

"Die you scum," Yammy yelled as he brought his palm down towards them as if to swat a fly.

As the shadow of his hand descended on them, Rukia looked up at it, eyes growing wide with the threat it represented. "Hado: number one," she whispered as she pointed a finger at Ishida. "Thrust."

Ishida cried out as he was suddenly thrown out of Yammy's reach by Rukia's Kido. But even as he slid to a stop, he bit down again through the pain and turned and sat up just enough to see what had happened to Rukia.

Yammy's hand was cupped on the ground over where they had just been lying. "Kuchiki-san…" he breathed.

Slowly, Yammy brought his hand up as he closed his fist. Ishida saw then that he had captured Rukia in his grip again. "You really are scrum," Yammy told her.

She didn't seem to have any fight left in her as she just allowed herself to be picked up. She wasn't struggling against his grip any longer, knowing full well that there was nothing that she was going to be able to do against him now.

"I'm going to kill you, girl," Yammy told her. "I'm going to squish you right here, in front of your friend that you just tried to save. And then I'm going to do the same to him."

"Kuchiki-san," Ishida gasped again, trying to struggle to his feet.

Rukia turned her gaze on Ishida as he staggered to his feet again. "Run, idiot," she said to him, barely above a whisper. But he heard her just as well.

"Kuchiki-san. I can't," he told her. He carefully released hold of his ribs with his right hand and held it out to form his bow. It flashed a moment and then disappeared again.

"You're too weak, worm," Yammy laughed at him. "You could run, like your friend suggests, but you'll die just the same."

Yammy looked down at Rukia then in his fist and slowly began to squeeze. Rukia screamed in agony as the fist began to close around her. "No!" Ishida yelled. "Not again," he half whispered to himself as he forced himself ignore his pain.

He summoned his bow again and grabbed a Seele Schneider and brought it to the bow. But just as he was about to fire, another voice interrupted him. "Hado 33, Sokatsui."

A flash of blue streaked through the air followed by a spray of blood as Rukia was sent flying along with Yammy's severed leg. Ishida dismissed his bow immediately and hurried to catch her. He did and then collapsed to the ground, still holding her body.

"Ishida," Rukia gasped. She gently removed herself from his grip and stood up. He was grinding his teeth to keep from crying out in pain. He looked like each breath was an ordeal and causing him agony.

Rukia looked up in desperation for the person that had just saved her life. She had been in so much pain and then so worried when she felt herself strike Ishida that she hadn't even been able to identify the voice even though she was sure that it was someone she knew.

"Why are you attacking him before me? Stay out of this."

"What are you talking about? I arrived here first. Know your place."

"Ha, it's not my fault if I slice you up by mistake."

"Nii-sama!" Rukia cried as she spied her brother arguing with Kenpachi. Yammy slammed his fist into the ground then as he struggled to get up.

Ishida let out a slight groan as he rolled onto his side and spied that Yammy was up already.

"Rukia," Byakuya said evenly to her. "Take the Quincy and get out of here."

"Kuchiki-san," Ishida gasped at him.

"Get outa here, kid," Kenpachi told him.

Yammy stood up then and swung a punch at Kenpachi. The captain met the blow but was thrown through the air to crash into a crumbling pillar in the distance.

"Zarkai-san!" Rukia exclaimed.

"That hurt! That hurt you piece of crap! I won't forgive you!" Yammy yelled at Byakuya. He turned then and eyed Ishida and Rukia. "But you aren't getting away either, four eyes!" he snapped as he began to radiate red hued energy. He was just bringing his hand back to swing at them when a huge chunk of rock sailed towards the back of Yammy's head. The giant Espada brought his hand up in time to smash the rock before it reached him.

"Oh good," Kenpachi's voice spoke through the dust that filled the air. "So you can punch. The last one only gave me an itch. I thought you were some giant fly. If you're going to punch me, do it with all your might, maggot."

"You're an impudent little fly!" Yammy screamed in anger at Kenpachi's taunt. He spun around and slammed his fist into the captain. "How's that? Can't do anything, can you?" the giant yelled as he continued to pound his fists into Kenpachi. "You're just a damn bug!"

Rukia gasped at the sight but suddenly her brother was standing in front of them. "I told you to go, Rukia," he said to her without facing her. "There is nothing more for you to do here."

"Kuchiki-san," Ishida said to him. "He's the top Espada. You might need…"

Byakuya turned his head slightly so that he could eye the injured Quincy as he interrupted him. "He is not a problem." Byakuya said.

"Oh?" a voice echoed across the sand. They all glanced back and saw Mayuri walking towards them while Nemu pushed a huge cart. "You're injured again already?" he said to Ishida. "And I had just fixed you."

Ishida cringed but managed to sound bold when he replied, "Apparently you didn't do a very good job."

Mayuri looked like he was going to explode at him for a second before he sighed and waved his hand dismissively. "I don't have time to listen to your jabbering right now. There is too much to investigate."

"That's generous of you," Byakuya told him. "Is it because of that cart?"

Mayuri said that it was and began to explain how excited he was to research all the goodies that he had taken from Szayel's lab. But Byakuya seemed to lose interest in what his fellow captain had to say as he turned to Rukia again and asked, "Rukia, where is Kurosaki Ichigo."

Rukia felt her throat constrict at the mention of Ichigo. She didn't want to begin crying in front of her brother like this, but she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to help it if she actually was forced to put the event into words.

"He's gone," Ishida said for her. "I… I was too late to help him."

Byakuya eyed the Quincy as Mayuri suddenly shut up for a second. A moment of silence passed between them. "Well…" Mayuri said after a moment. "There goes my number one test subject."

Rukia spun around and gave him her best death glare. She was about to open her mouth and give him a piece of her mind even if he was a captain. But a cry from the distance interrupted her.

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue called out as she ran towards them. When they looked, they saw her running in their direction with two others following at a slightly more subdued pace behind her.

"Captain Kurotsuchi," Unohana's calm voice carried to them. "Would you please open up a Garganta to the world of the living for us?" Isane was following close behind Unohana and bowed her head slightly when the painted faced Captain turned his attention on them. She didn't care much for the twelfth division captain but her fear of him was quite limited while her own captain was present.

Without taking his eyes off of Unohana, Mayuri said, "Nemu, set it up."

"Yes, Mayuri-sama," the vice-captain replied and began to take large items that seemed far too heavy for her to lift out of the cart.

By now, Inoue had reached Ishida and Rukia. "Ishida-kun…" she breathed as she saw how beat up he had gotten. She quickly called out her rejection field and began to heal him.

Unohana approached captain Kuchiki then and lowered her head slightly at what she had to tell him. "The substitute Shinigami, Kurosaki Ichigo is dead. Isane and I found the girl with his body and I confirmed that he has passed on."

Byakuya nodded once but remained expressionless as he said, "Then Karakura town is in danger. He was supposed to be the one to help protect it."

Unohana nodded. "I will cross over to the world of the living to offer my healing aid. The rest is going to be up to Urahara-san now."

"Psh," Mayuri muttered as he started to work at the set up for opening a Garganta. "Urahara-san… Urahara-san. The captains can take care of this without that fool's meddling."

Unohana turned to him and gave him one of her scary sweet smiles. "Urahara-san has already helped us greatly, Kurotsuchi-san. Or was it your idea to switch Karakura town with a fake one in Soul Society?"

Mayuri grumbled at her response, but didn't press the issue since he was pretending to be too busy with his equipment to do anything.

"Unohana-san," Ishida spoke up from under Inoue's healing dome. "I would like to accompany you back to Karakura."

"Ishida-kun," Inoue said softly to him, causing him to look up at her troubled eyes. "It's too dangerous."

"It's our home, Inoue-san," he told her gently. "That is where I belong now. If Kurosaki is no longer able to fight for it, then I must take his place."

"Why?" Inoue suddenly snapped as she shook her head. A tear was jarred free from her eye. "Why do you have to take Kurosaki-kun's place? You're not as strong as he was and he's gone now! Please, don't leave me again, Ishida-kun…" she ended her rant with a soft sob. Her fairies flashed back to place on her hair pins now that her healing was completed.

Ishida sat up and awkwardly reached up and pulled her to his shoulder as she continued to cry. He looked over and saw that Rukia was watching them with tears also flowing from her eyes.

"Don't cry for him," Byakuya said to Inoue. The girl started from his voice and pulled away from Ishida to look up at the captain. "If this is the duty that he has chosen, then that is where he must go."

Inoue sniffed and wiped her tears away. "I… I know," she muttered and then looked at Ishida. "I'm going with you," she told him.

He shook his head, but he wasn't the one that replied to her. "You're help is needed here, Inoue-san," Unohana told her. "Your other friends are injured and your healing skills are far beyond what even I can do."

Inoue swallowed and looked around. Isane had already gathered Chad and Renji's injured bodies and was beginning to heal them, but Inoue knew that her own skills would be much faster.

"Please stay here, Inoue-san," Ishida said to her as he held her shoulders. "Sado and Abarai need your help here. My help is needed over in Karakura town."

She swallowed and looked into his eyes. "Will I see you again, Ishida-kun?"

He blinked at her and then nodded. "I can't promise you that I won't get hurt. But I promise that I will see you again, Inoue-san."

She took a moment to steady herself. She wasn't going to cry again, she decided. But keeping calm in the face of possibly losing another dear friend was becoming increasingly difficult. "Please do, Ishida-kun," she finally said as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.

He knew that he should feel awkward at her closeness, but for the first time, it was completely natural and comforting. He wrapped his arms around her back and held her for a moment. He took a deep breath, taking in her scent and memorizing it.

He meant what he had promised. But he wasn't sure if when they saw each other again he would still be alive. There was no way that he would die and not see her one last time. But spirits can sometimes become confused after death and he wanted to give himself every possible way to remember her that he could.

After a moment, they pulled apart and Ishida stood up. He looked down at Inoue, still holding one of her hands. "I promise," he repeated softly to her.

He gently released her hand then and turned around to face Unohana. He saw that Mayuri was just about ready to open the gate back to Karakura. "We should hurry," he told her.

She nodded to him and then also turned around to face Mayuri. He and Nemu were now standing up on two rises, apparently using their own bodies to hold the gate open.

"I'll skip the explanation of what goes into a Garganta," Mayuri said. "If you go the other way, you'll get to the world of the living."

Ishida nodded.

"Make sure you watch your footing," Mayuri told him with a sickening smile. "One misstep and you'll wind up in some unknown space between the world of the living and Hueco Mundo. You'll not be able to get back." He sighed then and said, "Well, that would provide some interesting data as well."

"I won't have any difficulty," Ishida told him as he looked up at Mayuri. Suddenly he was struck by a moment of Déjà vu.

"What is it?" Mayuri asked him.

Ishida shook his head, "I was just reminded of how Urahara-san had sent us off before," he replied. "He also talked down to us from up high. Though I suppose that it's natural for you two to be similar since you worked under him in the past."

Mayuri's face contorted in rage as he began to lurch for Ishida. "How dare you!" he yelled.

Ishida simply nudged his glasses a little higher and shrugged before he used his Hirenkyaku to disappear from where he had been and appear at the lip of the Garganta. He paused and glanced back. His eyes met Inoue's and he nodded once to her before turning and entering the black void between the worlds.

Unohana turned and said, "Isane, Inoue-san, please take care of the others here."

"Mm," Inoue said as she nodded her head.

"Yes, captain Unohana," Isane replied.

Unohana turned and then jumped up to follow after Ishida.

"Ishida-kun…" Inoue whispered as she watched them disappear before turning her attention back to Chad whom she was currently healing. She was not looking forward to telling him and Renji what had happened to Ichigo and almost envied Ishida for escaping from that plight.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: First and foremost… I HAVE A BETA! Many thanks to Anonymous Pride for responding to my plea for help. I am so glad that I have someone looking over my stuff now!

Also, thanks to all who have reviewed. Especially to Hadrell… you are really going to give me a big head, Thanks!

Other than that, not much to say. There are a few parts that are skimmed through because they are basically the same as in the show so if you haven't watched, my apologies but I did try to at least keep a basic outline of what was happening during those parts for completeness sake.

Thanks again for reading and feel free to review when you're done ; )

Chapter 3

"Ishida-san," Unohana spoke softly to Ishida. She was running across a perfectly pristine spirit bridge that she was creating herself while Ishida propelled himself through the void on his compressed disk of spirit particles just slightly in front of her.

"Yes, Unohana-san?" he asked as he glanced back at her.

"Why do you wish to return to Karakura so badly? Are you aware of the level of opponents that face us on the other side?"

Ishida returned to watching where he was going before he answered. "I know that I am no match for Aizen. I have heard of his strength and how he was able to stop Kurosaki before with only the use of his finger. He didn't even use his Shikai on him."

"He did not?" Unohana asked. "So then you have not seen his ability either?"

Ishida shook his head. "No. I was too far away at the time anyway."

Unohana ran in silence for a moment before she asked, "Do you know what his Zanpakuto's ability is?"

Ishida glanced over his shoulder at her and then looked forward again before he said, "No. I haven't heard."

"His blade has the ability of complete hypnosis. He can completely control the senses of anyone who has ever seen his sword in Shikai form, even if only once."

Ishida gasped and asked, "Only once?"

Unohana nodded. "Yes. So, even though you will be at an extreme disadvantage at power, you will be the only one that cannot be affected by his Zanpakuto. Everyone else involved in this battle has seen it, including his own Arrancar and Espada."

Ishida shook his head, "But if Kurosaki wasn't even able to affect him, then I wouldn't stand a chance." It hurt to admit it, but it was the truth. He didn't know why he had felt so compelled to return to Karakura knowing he was not at the level needed for the battle. All he knew was that he needed to do something. Ichigo had been their best hope against Aizen and Ishida couldn't help but feel that he was at least partly responsible for the Shinigami's death.

Unohana closed her eyes and sighed. "That is true. So, I must ask you again, why do you wish to return to Karakura Town?"

Ishida sighed before he replied. "Because I owe it to Kurosaki. I was supposed to help him and I failed. My town is now in even more peril because of that failure and I must do what I can to try to take Kuro… Ichigo's place." He swallowed before continuing. "I wouldn't be his friend if I did otherwise."

Unohana didn't reply for some time as they continued to cross through the void. "You are a good friend, Ishida-san, but I fear that you are taking on too much to prove so."

Ishida didn't reply. He didn't feel that he needed to. This was something that he had to do, no matter what the impossible odds were. Ichigo had never backed down, no matter what the impossible odds were. Ishida no longer had that luxury now that Ichigo was gone.

"Unohana-san," he said after a while. "Aizen's defeat is paramount. No matter what, I will work to make sure that it comes about."

It was then that he realized that the blackness in front of them was beginning to lighten. Through the veil of black, he could make out a blue sky and beyond that he could see a white clad figure facing off to another he was fairly sure was Shinji.

He drew a Seele Schneider and brought to his now summoned bow. "Please do not forget your promise to the girl, Ishida-san." He heard Unohana say softly to him.

He closed his eyes for a moment and thought to himself, _I promise to see you again Inoue-san and I am sorry if I cause you any pain before that time._

He opened his eyes just ah he broke through the barrier between the two worlds. Aizen seemed distracted by something on the ground and Ishida knew this his only shot at the former captain. He drew back his bow and let the bladed weapon fly.

There was a sudden blinding flash that filled the sky as his blade struck the back of Aizen's neck. A swirl of energy obscured him from vision as everyone paused in what they were doing to look up at what happened.

"Ishida?" Toshiro said as he saw that it was the Quincy that had just broken through to the real world.

Captain Komamura looked up at the young man in surprise. He had not thought him capable of an attack at that level. He scanned the area that had just exploded with energy for signs of his enemy. If the Quincy's attack did not finish him off, Komamura was determined to do so himself.

"You, Quincy," Shinji called as he suddenly appeared beside Ishida. "Where's Ichigo?"

Ishida turned his face towards the Visored. The look in his eyes must have told Shinji what the truth was. A look of despair swept over his features as he suddenly turned and looked at the injured Hiyori. He gasped then when he saw that Unohana was now at her side, treating her injury.

"Unohana-san came across with me." Ishida told him. He would have explained more, but the energy that had been swirling around where Aizen had been suddenly flashed and seemed to be sucked in towards the center. In a moment, everyone could see that Aizen was still alive and unharmed standing right where he had been. He was now holding onto the small metal rod that was all a Seele Schneider was in anyone but a Quincy's hand.

"I must say," he said as he eyed the weapon in his hand. "I am rather surprised at the power of this little thing."

He looked up then and met Ishida's eyes. "But I am even more surprised to see you here, Ishida Uryuu. Tell me, where is Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Ishida swallowed and then raised his chin to Aizen. "Ichigo decided he wasn't needed to fight you. He's mopping up the remains of your followers in Hueco Mundo."

Aizen stared at him a moment before he frowned slightly and said, "You mean to say that he has fallen?"

There was a gasp of surprise from several of the onlookers.

Aizen shook his head sadly. "This is a disappointment. I had such high hopes for him. Clearly he was not up to the path that I had tried to put him on."

Aizen turned his back on Ishida then as if to move away. Ishida drew another Seele Schneider and had strung to his bow before he even realized he had reacted again.

"If you fire that, Ishida Uryuu," Aizen said without turning back around. "You should know that you cannot hit me in the same place that you aimed for before."

Ishida narrowed his eyes slightly and realized that there was a tiny hexagonal shaped shield floating in the air just behind Aizen's neck. "The back of the neck," Aizen continued. "Is the most vulnerable place to attack."

He turned halfway and looked at Ishida lazily from the corner of his eye. "Did you think that I would enter a battle without being prepared for this fact, Quincy?"

"Enough of this Aizen," Shinji snapped as he stepped forward in the air and put himself in between Ishida and Aizen. "We were in the middle of something."

Aizen sighed as he reluctantly turned all the way around to face Shinji. "Hirako Shinji… even now, after the one you put your trust and belief in has fallen; you still wish to drag this out?"

"Whether Ichigo has fallen or not," Shinji told Aizen as he tightened his grip on his Zanpakuto and narrowed his eyes slightly. "I will still kill you."

Aizen shook his head and said, "You cannot reach me, Hirako Shinji. The power of my blade surpasses that of yours by so much that there is no comparison."

"We'll see," Shinji said darkly as he brought his hand down to grip the hilt of his blade. "Here I come, Aizen," he said softly before launching himself at the man.

Ishida stared wide eyed at the scene. "Hirako!" he called out when he saw that Shinji wasn't even aiming his attack at Aizen. Clearly Aizen was using his Zanpakuto to alter Shinji's perceptions, but Shinji either didn't hear the warning or was too far gone to care.

There was a flash of blood sprayed through the air and a moment of silence. Shinji hung for a second in the air staring dumbly ahead, not sure how he had missed his target. Then, slowly, he began to sink and plummet towards the earth, a trail of blood streaming from the gaping wound across his chest.

"Hirako!" Ishida called again and moved to try and catch the injured Visored, but Aizen was suddenly in front of him.

Ishida realized that someone else had moved to catch Shinji even as he stared wide eyed at the threat that was now in front of him. It had been Lisa that reacted quickly enough to catch her leader. She brought him over to the slanted building where Unohana was working on Hiyori and laid his body out next to the small girl.

Hiyori turned her head slightly to see her friend beside her. "Shin…ji," she gasped as she slowly reached her hand out and grabbed his. He was breathing heavily and couldn't find the strength to look back at her, but his hand curled around her fingers when they touched.

Far above, Aizen was now devoting his attention to the Quincy before him. He tossed the Seele Schneider he was still holding to the ground and stared at Ishida for a moment. "You have the hatred necessary I see," he finally said to Ishida. "But you do not have the strength or the skill. You are an annoyance, nothing more to me.

Ishida tightened his grip on his still drawn Seele Schneider, but did not react otherwise. "You have lost a friend," Aizen told him. "You are personally invested in my destruction now. Even though you pose no threat to me, I feel that I should at least give you the satisfaction of attacking me one more time. Go ahead and fire, nothing you throw at me can reach me."

Ishida's arm began to shake slightly. He knew how right Aizen was. There was nothing that he was going to be able to do to hurt Aizen. Even if he could somehow Sprenger, his most powerful technique, he knew it would be useless. If it didn't work at eliminating Szayel Granz or Yammy, then there was no way it would so much as scratch Aizen.

He closed his eyes a moment and tried to think, but all that he could see when he closed them were Ichigo's dead staring eyes. Those eyes were burned into Ishida's vision and bore into his heart. They were the eyes of accusation. It wasn't Aizen, so much, that Ishida hated at the moment, but himself.

Sweat began to run down his face as his breath became short. Every fiber in his being wanted to release that blade but he knew that he would be as good as dead if he did so. And a small part of him couldn't help but feel that that would be just. He had allowed his best friend to be killed; shouldn't he offer his own life up in repentance?

He opened his eyes and realized that he was going to fire. He didn't care that it would be his death to do so because he had already given it up in Hueco Mundo. He should have died instead of Ichigo. Now he was going to try and right that injustice.

His fingers were just beginning to loosen on his grip of the Seele Schneider. Aizen gave him a curious look, almost as if he was slightly surprised at the decision that he realized the Quincy had just come to.

But Ishida didn't get the chance to fire the shot. A large hand wrapped itself around his own, preventing him from releasing the shot. Ishida gasped and looked up at the person the hand was attached to. "Komamura-san," he breathed. He didn't think that he had ever been this close to the dog faced Captain before.

Even now, the Captain wasn't looking at Ishida, but rather staring at Aizen, but when he spoke, his words were clearly directed at Ishida. "Do not let him provoke you, Quincy," he said. "I understand your pain and the need to avenge your friend, but Kurosaki Ichigo would not wish for you to throw your life away so lightly."

Ishida blinked as Komamura finally tilted his head to the side and met his eyes. "Only a fool would think that throwing away their life to avenge a friend can bring about justice. It was for your life and those of your other friends that he died. Do not make his sacrifice be in vain."

Ishida stared at Komamura for a moment before he slowly relaxed the tension on his bow and lowered it to his side. The captain released his grip and then turned his attention back to Aizen. "We will now protect you, Quincy," Komamura finished. Suddenly the air around Ishida was filled with the other captains and remaining Visoreds.

"Ishida," Hitsugaya said from the front of the group. "Just as Ichigo would, we will fight to protect you."

"Protect me?" Ishida gasped. "It is my fault that Ichigo is not here now to protect you. You are all already in rough shape. Please do not…"

"It is our duty," Komamura interrupted him. "Both as Shinigami, and friends and allies of Kurosaki Ichigo."

Suddenly Hitsugaya launched himself at Aizen. There was a tremendous clash as Aizen met the young captain's blade with his own. Ishida could see that the two of them were now talking to each other over their crossed blades, but he couldn't hear what was said. He watched as Captain Kyoraku attacked from the side and was stopped but his attention was taken away from the battle for a moment as Komamura addressed him.

"Quincy, I wish to thank you. Back there, if you hadn't attacked Aizen when you did, I would have lunged at him in a fit of rage and probably would have died. Thank you."

"Komamura-san," Ishida said.

"Aizen has also caused the death of my friend, so I understand what you are going through. I cannot tell you to leave here because I know that it would be an insult to the emotions that you must be feeling, but I must advise you to stay out of this fight."

Ishida swallowed and then nudged his glasses up as he responded, "I cannot promise that, Komamura-san. I came here to help in whatever way that I can. If I see an opportunity, I will take it, but I must also thank you. If you wouldn't have stopped me a moment ago, I also would have attacked from my sense of guilt and thrown away everything that Ichigo had ever fought for. Thank you."

Komamura nodded to him and then suddenly he was gone, throwing himself into the battle ahead. The Visoreds were the next ones to disappear and enter the fray. A voice suddenly came from his left then.

"How long are you going to stand there?" Soi Fon asked him. "You are a target standing out in the open like this, Quincy."

She walked forward to stand in front of him as she continued to address him. He couldn't help but notice that there was a void where her left arm should have been. It wasn't very long ago that his own left arm had been missing and he sent a silent thank you to Inoue for healing him so quickly.

"Don't think that we're prepared to die in this battle," Soi Fon said. "We're fighting for survival. Saving the world is just a cause that sounds good. We're fighting for our survival and your survival so that we can protect everyone else from Aizen. Don't let our struggles be in vain, Quincy." The second division captain vanished from sight as well then. Her vice-captain called after her and was also gone a moment later.

Ishida stood there, watching as the captains and Visoreds rushed forward for their attacks. _I understand why they wish to protect me_, he thought to himself. _But_ _I cannot remain behind forever. _

He remembered what it was that Byakuya had told Inoue just before he had left for the living world.

"_Don't cry for him," Byakuya said to Inoue. "If this is the duty that he has chosen, then that is where he must go."_

Ishida lowered his head slightly and thought, _the protection of this town is my duty and even if I am not strong enough to do soon my own, I still must act when I can. I cannot hide from this, but it is all right for me to work with the others towards that end._

So Ishida watched the battle progress. He waited for any opportunity that he might be able to assist, but everything was moving far too quickly. He watched as first Komamura fell and then one by one the remaining Visoreds. Each time, he was sure that they would have struck him, but their aim was always just slightly off. It was as if they couldn't see him properly.

That was when Ishida realized that that was probably true. Aizen was using his complete hypnosis on them and they didn't even realize it. They had thought that he wouldn't have time to use his ability if they all came at him at once, but clearly they didn't understand how his ability worked.

Now Soi Fon was standing before Aizen, but she didn't seem to notice when he left her, even while she was still speaking to him. "Soi Fon-san!" Ishida cried, but she didn't hear him. Maybe because she was too involved in what she was doing or maybe it was Aizen blocking his voice from her, but it didn't matter which it was. He saw then Aizen descending on the injured vice-captains below. They never took their eyes off of the battle in the air that was now nothing more than a shadow play. The captains were all fighting against an illusion.

Ishida brought his Seele Schneider to his bow again and aimed at Aizen below. He had already breached the healing field that Kira had created and was reaching for the unconscious Hinamori.

Aizen glanced up at him and then smiled slightly. Just as Ishida released his hold on the blade, Kira stepped backward as if something had appeared in front of him so that he was in the path of the shot.

Ishida gasped and quickly used his will to redirect the blade. It slammed into the ground just behind Kira, completely unnoticed, but as this happened, Aizen had disappeared from view along with Hinamori.

Ishida looked around rapidly and then saw that Aizen was walking through the fierce battle that was going on in the air. Fearlessly, he approached the wall of ice that Toshiro had just created. He placed Hinamori between Soi Fon and the ice. As her shadow crossed the ice wall, a blade suddenly shot out from the shadow and pieced the young vice-captain.

"No!" Ishida cried as he pulled another blade and brought it to his bow. "Stop! It's not him!" he tired to warn them, but no one heard him.

Aizen left Hinamori's body, skewered by the eighth division captain and returned to the ground. Ishida ignored him for the moment. He saw Toshiro rushing up from behind, preparing to run Hinamori through with his own blade. He knew that the tenth division captain was seeing Aizen there and there was nothing that he was going to be able to do to break the illusion.

"Forgive me, Hitsugaya-san," Ishida whispered and then fired his blade. It sailed through the air and shattered the wall of ice just a moment before Toshiro was going to stab his sword through it.

The white-haired captain came to a sudden halt in midair, stunned at the sight of the Quincy blade piercing through his shoulder. Soi Fon and Kyoraku turned and looked over at Ishida, also surprised by the attack.

"It's not Aizen!" Ishida shouted again and rushed over to them. He reached out and grabbed Hinamori as she began to fall.

"Hin…" Soi Fon gasped. She was finally able to see what was really there now.

"Hinamori…" Toshiro breathed, unable to process what he was looking at.

Ishida looked around wildly, searching for Aizen now that he had stopped Toshiro from finishing Hinamori off. He spotted the man below, slowly advancing on the other vice-captains that still seemed oblivious to what was really happening.

"Below! The vice-captains!" Ishida yelled at the three captains that surrounded him. He was still holding Hinamori and unable to do anything himself. Soi Fon was the first to react as she spun around and stared down, but she didn't see what Ishida could.

"Give her to me." Toshiro said as he reached out for his childhood friend. He turned then and shot off, carrying her down to join the other injured beside Unohana. Ishida quickly pulled another blade as soon as his arms were free and launched it at Aizen. Clearly he was the only one that was able to follow the man's movements, but shooting at him from a distance was dangerous because now it was Iba that moved in front of the blade. Ishida gritted his teeth as he forced yet another blade to impact uselessly in the ground. He drew his final one and was about to launch himself down to the ground after Aizen personally when a slight change in the air pressure beside him warned him of a new danger.

He ducked just in time as one of Kyoraku's blades passed through where his neck had just been. "Kyoraku-san!" Ishida gasped, but he had to twist out of the way of Soi Fon's sting in the next instant.

"When did you switch, Aizen?" Soi Fon said to him.

Ishida cursed under his breath as he realized the position that he had just gotten himself into. They could no longer hear or see him, and now he had taken Hinamori's place as their enemy.

He glanced down again and saw Aizen smiling up at him. "They won't know what they are doing until you are dead, Quincy," Aizen told him. "I had thought that you might have been sensible enough to flee when you were given the chance, but you have turned out to be an even further annoyance. Don't worry though; you will soon be joining your friend whom you allowed to die."

Ishida gasped as he felt Soi Fon's tiny blade pierce his shoulder. He felt a curious creeping sensation across his skin as her mark spread out from the puncture, signaling where she needed to aim to kill him.

Ishida used his Hirenkyaku to break out from between the two captains, but he knew that he was in serious trouble. They were going all out, thinking that they were fighting against Aizen. Ishida remembered how he had just barely managed to have a draw against a captain in the past. He knew that, faced with two captain level Shinigami was beyond his capabilities.

He had to find a way to snap them out of it. He thought desperately as he spun and blocked another swing from Kyoraku with his Seele Schneider. He sensed, more than saw, Soi Fon aiming for his shoulder again. Without really thinking about it, he created a small disk of compressed spirit particles between his shoulder and her blade. He hadn't thought about using this newly discovered ability in this manner before, but he was certainly glad that he did now.

Soi Fon's attack was deflected and he was able to gain a bit of space again_. They could all see and hear me for an instant after I had shot Hitsugaya_, he thought quickly. _Maybe it is possible to jar their perception, if only for a moment._

A small whirlwind was sent sailing in at his right as Soi Fon came at his left. He knew that Kyoraku was counting on him dodging both so that he could be ready for a sneak attack. This was Ishida's chance.

He gripped his bladed weapon tightly and then used his Hirenkyaku to shoot up, avoiding both attacks, but as soon as he was in position, he turned around and brought his blade out, expecting Kyoraku's attack from behind.

He had guessed correctly and his Seele Schneider bit into the surprised captain's abdomen before he was able to back away. Kyoraku glanced down at his wound and saw that it wasn't very deep and then he looked up at the one that had given it to him and gasped. "Quincy?" he asked.

He turned and saw Soi Fon advancing on Ishida, and he quickly put himself between Ishida and the other captain. "Wait, Soi Fon!" he told her, bringing her to a halt.

Ishida knew that breaking this illusion might not last long, so he quickly launched into his explanation even while Kyoraku was trying to hold Soi Fon back who clearly was still seeing Aizen in front of her. "He's still manipulating you. He's down on the ground and I think he's going to attack the vice-captains."

"Why can I see you?" Kyoraku asked as he pulled Soi Fon back again and tried to restrain her.

"Kyoraku! What are you doing? He's going to attack!" she was shouting at him as she struggled in his grip.

"I can break his spell, but only for a moment, by injuring you. I think the sudden, unexpected pain is what jars your consciousness back, but I don't think it will last long."

Kyoraku nodded to him and said, "Do what you can, Quincy. I will not interfere again."

Suddenly his eyes seemed to gloss over for a moment and Ishida knew that he was seeing Aizen where he was standing again, but he shook his head and said, "Even if you are Aizen, there's no point in attacking you anymore," he said.

"Kyoraku!" Soi Fon screamed.

"It's not him, Soi Fon," he told her. "He's still manipulating us. If you attack him, you could be attacking an ally."

"Thank you, Kyoraku-san," Ishida said, not knowing if the captain could even hear him. He turned and then shot for the ground, hoping to intercept Aizen before he was able to attack the vice captains.

Soi Fon quit struggling and faced Kyoraku when he released her. "What do you suggest? We can't just sit by and do nothing."

Kyoraku sighed and muttered, "My, my. What do we do? If we fight, we could just be doing his job for him. If we don't then the Quincy is going to get himself killed and we'll be handing Karakura over to Aizen."

"Get back to Soul Society," a commanding voice said behind them. They both gasped and spun around.

"Captain-commander!" Soi Fon exclaimed.

"Get back to Soul Society and watch over Karakura town," he told them. "I will take care of Aizen."

They both nodded their heads and withdrew. Kyoraku glanced down and was relieved to see that Ukitake was now also under Unohana's care. "Take care, old friend," he said softly before he turned and thrust his blade into the air in front of him and turned it. "Open," he commanded and the Senkaimon to Soul Society appeared before them.

"Let's get going, Soi Fon," he told the second division captain and they both rushed through the gate and headed across the precipice world to Soul Society.

Ishida, meanwhile, had spotted Aizen and was headed towards him. The traitor was nearly upon the vice-captains now, but they seemed to be able to see him now.

"A…Aizen," Kira muttered as he brought his sword up and took a step back. He continued to place himself between Aizen and the unconscious Rangiku. Iba, however, stepped forward, bringing his own blade up.

"Aizen!" Ishida yelled, pulling his attention just as he was about to bring his blade down on Iba.

Aizen turned and saw Ishida rushing towards him, his Seele Schneider in hand, but a sudden wall of fire erupted from the ground between them, bringing Ishida to a halt.

Aizen looked up into the sky and saw the captain-commander standing in the center of the pillar of fire that just appeared. Aizen glanced at the vice-captains that he was about to dispatch and then vanished from their sight to appear in the air in front of Yamamoto.

"Ishida Uryuu, you are not part of the thirteen court guards," Yamamoto said. "I cannot ask you to risk yourself here. Please withdraw."

Ishida wasn't sure what to do from there. He knew that if anyone besides Ichigo was going to be able to stop Aizen, it would be the captain-commander, but he would be just as vulnerable to Aizen's ability.

Ishida decided to wait and see what would happen and be ready if an opportunity presented itself, and so he watched as the two attacked each other. Aizen stabbed Yamamoto, but this allowed the captain-commander to know that it really was Aizen that he was dealing with and not an illusion. Then another Arrancar entered the fight that Ishida had never seen before. Aizen said its name was Wonderweiss and had the sole purpose of sealing the Captain-commander's Zanpakuto.

The fight that ensued between Wonderweiss and Yamamoto was intense, but brief. The captain-commander dispatched the poor creature bare handed. But Aizen had another card up his sleeve. Yamamoto realized at the last second that the power Wonderweiss had sealed was about to be released in a massive explosion. He threw himself on it, just in time, containing the eruption of fire and sparing the town and everyone inside.

Ishida gasped when the air cleared and he saw the captain-commander lying in the center of a crater, battered and burned. Aizen then declared that he would not allow Yamamoto to live and raised his sword to finish him off, but the captain-commander grabbed Aizen's leg and created a massive explosion of Kido.

Ishida knew that it wasn't going to be enough to take Aizen down, but he hoped that it would be enough to disorient him as he fled from the flames.

The Quincy was there, waiting, when Aizen emerged from the conflagration. He had collected his lost Seele Schneider during the battle between Aizen and Yamamoto and now held the final one in his hand, ready to finish the pentagon that he had left for Aizen.

As expected, Aizen leapt from the flames to the top of a building where he would be able to observe the results of the Kido explosion. Ishida stabbed the final blade into the rooftop, setting off the binding spell portion of his most powerful move.

A slightly singed Aizen gasped and struggled to turn his head just enough to look at Ishida out of the corner of his eye. "So, you're still here, Quincy?" he said.

Ishida knew he didn't have the time to respond to him if he wanted to keep his advantage. He pulled out the Ginto tube and allowed the drops of liquid spirit energy to pour out of it onto the hilt of the nearest blade.

"Sprenger," he said just as the drops struck the hilt.

A cascade effect was set off, creating an explosion of blue hued energy inside the confines of the pentagon. Ishida stared at the explosion, hoping that he may have done some damage to the already disoriented Aizen.

Still, when his vision cleared, he was not at all surprised to see Aizen still standing. His shirt had been blow away much like Szayel Granz's had and there were burns running along his arms and across his torso. But Ishida knew that it looked far worse than it was.

The other thing that the Quincy noticed was the small purple dot in the center of Aizen's chest. As Ishida stared at it, he saw it send out more purple, running through Aizen's veins. As it spread, it healed the burns that covered the man.

"Hogyoku," Ishida muttered as he realized what it was he was looking at.

"Very good, Ishida Uryuu," Aizen said as he also glanced down at the object embedded in his chest. "It appears that it wishes to protect its master." He looked up and took a step toward Ishida.

The Quincy took a reflexive step back. Aizen stared at him a moment and, then sighed, "It really is a pity that Kurosaki Ichigo fell against Ulquiorra. I had had such high hopes for him and had hoped to test myself at this point against his development."

"What are you talking about?" Ishida asked.

"I have put so much time and consideration into his development, all for the hope to have a worthy opponent to face when the time came. You see, all the battles he fought were part of my plan."

Ishida's eyes grew wide as he processed that bit of information. Aizen continued to prattle on. "He met Kuchiki Rukia and was given her Shinigami powers. Later, his battle against you awakened his own powers…"

Ishida's mind was racing as Aizen continued to list off each of Ichigo's most difficult battles and how they had continued to improve his abilities and strengthen his powers. He felt cold as he realized that it was Aizen that had been behind everything that had happened to Ichigo, and by association, him. He knew that it had to all be true.

He had always known that something had been very wrong on the day that he had challenged Ichigo with that hollow bait. There was no way that such a small thing could have drawn so many hollows, let alone a Menos Grande. And everything else had always seemed far too convenient to have just happened that way.

Ishida could feel a rage building in the pit of his stomach that he had never known he was capable of. He had thought that he had been righteously angry with Kurotsuchi for what he had done to his grandfather. He had thought that he had been furious with the Shinigami's for allowing that to happen to his grandfather. He thought that his hatred could go no deeper for Ulquiorra in that moment that he watched him kill Ichigo, but now he knew that he had not even begun to explore his hatred. This man, standing in front of him, had manipulated events and conditions that tore apart all of their lives, just so he could have an equal sparring partner.

Even as his body and mind filled with hatred, there was one question that he still needed to know the answer to. "Tell me, Aizen," Ishida said in a soft but intense voice as the other had finished his explanations. "Why did you choose Ichigo for this experiment?"

Aizen gave him a slight smile as he said, "Because he was special."

Ishida shook his head and adjusted his glasses as he said, "That's not good enough. There had to be something more, some reason that you thought he was special. What singled him out?"

Aizen stood still a moment as if considering whether or not to answer Ishida. "I knew about him from the moment he was born," he finally said. "Because he is both human and…"

Suddenly a rush of air shot past Ishida, drowning out Aizen's last word. He blinked and then realized that there was now another person standing between him and Aizen. "You talk too much," the man said. "Aizen."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello again! Welcome back and thanks for sticking with me so far. Once again, thanks for reviews! ::looks at Haddrell and waves:: It's always appreciated. Also thanks to Anonymous Pride for the beta and Haddrell for confirming some cannon for me!

This is another long one, so please bear with it. There's some dense sections that will appear quite familiar, but we'll start getting into some very different circumstances towards the end.

With that, here we go!

Chapter 4

_Aizen stood still a moment as if considering whether or not to answer Ishida. "I knew about him from the moment he was born," he finally said. "Because he is both human and…"_

_ Suddenly a rush of air shot past Ishida, drowning out Aizen's last word. He blinked and then realized that there was now another person standing between him and Aizen. "You talk too much," the man said. "Aizen."_

Ishida stared at the back of this person. It was a Shinigami that he had never seen before, but there was something terribly familiar about him. It was a combination of the stance, build, and just general feeling about him.

Suddenly Ishida gasped as he noticed the hair line along the back of this man's head and he knew how he seemed familiar. "Kurosaki-san?" he asked quietly as he added all these traits up and somehow knew that this had to Ichigo's father.

Isshin turned his head slightly to look at Ishida from the corner of his eye. The sight of that eye confirmed his suspicion in Ishida's mind. There was only one other person that he had even seen that had those intense brown eyes.

"Ishida Uryuu," Isshin said as he turned all the way around and faced him.

Ishida froze. He had no idea that Ichigo's dad knew who he was. He had never met the man before. But more than the surprise of being recognized, he was now the one that would have to tell him that his son was dead. His heart felt like it had become ice at the prospect of having to tell this man such news, especially under these circumstances.

But Isshin saved him from having to explain just yet as he suddenly launched himself at Ishida and grabbed him. He used Shunpo to take them both down, off the rooftop, and to the alleyways below.

Once they had gotten some distance between them and Aizen, Isshin release his hold on Ishida and turned to him. "Uryuu," he said softly to him. "Where is my son?"

Ishida swallowed but looked Isshin in the face as he said, "Kurosaki-san, your son, Ichigo, was killed by the Espada Ulquiorra in Hueco Mundo."

There was along moment of silence as Isshin's face became dark and unreadable. "No," he finally said very softly. "Ichigo is too stubborn to have been killed. You must be mistaken."

The pain in his voice was nearly enough to make Ishida agree with him, just to spare that hurt. But he knew that he had a responsibility to report the truth to this man. He shook his head sadly and said, "I am not mistaken, Kurosaki-san. I witnessed it myself. I was there when Inoue-san tried to heal him but it would not work."

He had to stop and blink back his own emotions a moment before he continued. "I carried his body away from the site of his attack. As much as it pains me to admit it, your son is dead, Kurosaki-san."

Isshin turned his back on Ishida. His body was trembling slightly with is suppressed emotions. Ishida could feel the waves of sorrow falling off of him as he fully realized that Ichigo was gone. "You were right; I am a terrible parent, Ryuken…" Ishida thought he heard him whisper. But the words had been so soft, he couldn't have been sure if that was what he had really said.

But if it was, how did Ichigo's father know Ryuken? Was there some history there that Ishida had no knowledge of?

He wasn't given any more time to consider this thought as Isshin suddenly turned around and faced Ishida again. Ishida knew that look in those eyes. It was the same look that Ichigo got whenever any one of his friends were hurt or even targeted. It was that swirling mess of anger and the determination to act, no matter what.

"Please, stay out of this from here on, Uryuu," Isshin told him.

With that, he suddenly shot up into the air and disappeared. Ishida gasped and then moved to the end of the alley so that he could see Aizen again in the distance. He could just make out the man standing where they had left him. There was now another beside him on the rooftop that Ishida had seen watching the fighting before. He had guessed that this was Ichimaru Gin, Aizen's ally from Soul Society.

Suddenly the corner of the building that Aizen was standing on gave way and sunk towards the ground. Ishida realized that Isshin had appeared below and had slashed away at the building to bring Aizen down to his level. He leapt up into the air and joined Aizen on the falling building, crossing blades with him.

Suddenly, Isshin did something that Ishida couldn't see from where he was that sent Aizen sailing through the air, crashing through several other buildings as he went.

For a brief moment, Ishida considered attacking Gin to make sure that he didn't interfere with this fight, but Gin didn't seem at all interested in assisting his comrade but stayed on top of the roof, calmly observing. "What is he up to?" Ishida asked himself out loud as he moved to get a better view of both Gin and the fight between Aizen and Isshin.

Even from that distance, Ishida could tell that Aizen was only toying with Ichigo's father. Isshin was throwing all of his hatred and anger at the loss of his son at Aizen, but was unable to land a single blow. Suddenly, the two separated and appeared to be talking to each other. Ishida wondered what they could possibly be discussing when something suddenly erupted from Aizen's chest.

White bands began to flow around his body and then solidified in an almost antler like manner over his chest when a flash of red suddenly shot from behind him and passed through his right shoulder.

Ishida turned his attention then to where that blast had come from and saw Urahara standing on another roof top, staring down at Aizen while still pointing the end of his cane at him.

"Urahara-san," Ishida muttered. He knew that Urahara was a very powerful individual even if he had never actually seen him in battle before. Just being in the man's presence had always been somewhat overwhelming, though he would never have admitted that to anyone.

To see him out and about to enter the battle gave Ishida a small spark of hope in what was appearing to be a hopeless situation. Then for a brief moment, that hopeless feeling returned when it looked as if Aizen had run Urahara through even before the battle had begun.

It was a relief to see that it had been a trick. Urahara shot Aizen with several Kido moves and it looked as if it might have done something, but then Aizen appeared behind Urahara and slashed him across the chest with just his hand.

Aizen was covered even more in that strange white stuff that the Hogyoku seemed to be generating and he appeared to be feeling quite confident and smug as he glared down at Urahara. His smugness however, was wiped away as his wrists suddenly began to glow. In an instant, there was a massive explosion of power where Aizen had just been.

From all appearances, Aizen had just been blown up from the inside out. Ishida used his Hirenkyaku to make it beside Isshin, who had been watching the battle the whole time. "Uryuu," he said without turning to him. "You shouldn't be here."

Urahara descended from above and joined them. "Ishida-san, what brings you out here?" He turned then and noticed the look on Isshin's face. He frowned and asked, "Your son?"

Isshin shook his head sadly.

"Oh dear," Urahara muttered as he lowered his head, shading his expression with the brim of his hat.

Suddenly, the air above cleared and a person that Ishida could only assume was Aizen, stepped out from the swirling mess of spiritual energy. He was now completely encased in the white substance and his eyes were two purple orbs set in the mask of white.

"What is that?" Ishida asked as he stared up at this new creature that Aizen had become.

Suddenly, Aizen was on the ground between Urahara and the other two. He turned to Urahara then and pompously explained how he had grown too powerful for Urahara's technique to work on him.

Without a word, Urahara drew his sword from his cane and unsealed it with a slash of his wrist.

Ishida was mildly impressed with this feat since he was under the impression that a Zanpakuto could only be unsealed with an incantation and the use of its name. Apparently Urahara was powerful enough to not need that.

The two of them stood for a moment, facing off with swords drawn. Suddenly Ishida gasped as Isshin raced by him and launched into an attack at Aizen's back. Aizen kicked back with his foot at Isshin just as Urahara attacked from the front. Both of them were shoved back, but somehow they had managed to get a blue chain around his ankle and wrist, pulling him out between them.

Aizen asked what they thought they were doing, but then Yoruichi sailed in from above wearing armor on her arms and legs. She slammed into Aizen and pounded him into the pavement.

When the air cleared, she was kneeling above his motionless body that was now indented into the cement below. "Well, did it work?" she asked.

"Yoruichi-san, get out of there!" Urahara exclaimed just as Aizen moved. A blast of energy came from him, disintegrating the armor on Yoruichi's left leg before she could retreat. She knelt beside Urahara, leg undamaged, but devoid of her armor.

Ishida watched as Aizen told them how each of their attempts that he defeated was another of their hopes. And then Yoruichi and Urahara seemed to be having some kind of argument about the armor and Ishida couldn't help but sigh at their childishness in the middle of battle.

They all became serious right away again just before Aizen suddenly appeared between Yoruichi and Urahara. He sent the woman flying and Urahara was just barely able to bring up his blade in time to protect himself. Isshin rushed in next, but both he and Urahara were knocked back.

All three then rushed in for a simultaneous attack and all three were sent flying again as Aizen repelled them.

Ishida stared wide-eyed at the whole encounter, wondering if he should even bother trying to help them. There didn't seem any points to it because if these three powerful Shinigami were unable to scratch Aizen, then there was very little that he could accomplish.

"Pay attention," a soft voice said behind him. "Your back is wide open."

Ishida gasped as he spun around, pulling his bow up and aiming an arrow at the man that had appeared behind him. Gin was standing there with his usual fox like grin. "Psych, just messing with you," Gin told him as he sat down on a slab of cement behind him.

"Why don't we sit and watch the show?" he said.

"What do you mean?" Ishida asked without lowering his bow.

"I've been with captain Aizen a long time but I've never seen anything like this. Well, he fused with the Hogyoku without my knowing, so that's to be expected."

Ishida glanced behind him out of the corner of his eye without lowering his stance against Gin. What he could see still told him that Aizen was not so much as injured yet and the Shinigami were being beaten pretty badly.

"Don't you get it?" Gin asked, bringing Ishida's full attention back to him. "There's nothing that you or those guys can do. He's going to kill all of you. It's all over."

Ishida lowered his bow and dismissed the arrow that he had loaded on it before adjusting his glasses. He glanced back again and saw that the situation was still unchanged. "Perhaps," he said softly. "But until we are all killed, there is still hope."

"Interesting," Gin said as he cocked his head slightly to the side. "You are still able to be optimistic even after the death of your best hope? Even in the face of certain death, you can still see a way out?"

Ishida turned his full attention back to Gin and asked, "What else is there to do? If we are to die, then is it not best to die trying to save ourselves? If we were to slink away, admitting defeat, then Aizen will still kill us. Even if the cause seems hopeless, that does not mean that we give up."

Gin stared at him a long while. "How sad it is that you pose no threat to Aizen.

You have the strength of character to stand up to him, but not the ability." Gin stood up then and pulled his Zanpakuto out, holding it out to the side.

Ishida brought his bow back up but didn't draw an arrow out just yet. "I'm afraid I cannot let a weakling like you fight Aizen." Gin told him as he brought the hilt of his blade to the level of his throat and aimed the point at Ishida.

Ishida narrowed his eyes, wondering what that stance could be. He remembered that brief encounter in Soul Society where Ichigo had encountered this man and knew that his blade was capable of extending great distances rapidly.

"Kamishini no yari…Buto," Gin said.

Ishida dodged to the side on instinct more than actually seeing what happened. He felt a rush of air pass his shoulder as he moved to the side. As he fell towards the ground, he pulled an arrow and released it at Gin.

Gin dodged the arrow just as easily and Ishida saw that his blade had already returned to its original size. It was far faster than he had anticipated if it had already returned without him even perceiving it.

"Kamishini no yari…Buto renjin," Gin spoke again.

There was no time to dodge. Ishida was kneeling on the ground where he had wound up after dodging the first strike. He knew that the blade was flying at him, but he couldn't make his muscles react fast enough.

Somehow, he must have managed to slide his bow in just the right position, however, to catch the tip. But now he was sent flying backward through the air, propelled by the rapidly extended blade. With a sickening crunch, his back slammed into the flat side of a building, knocking the air out of him and causing him to cough up a spurt of blood.

He ground his teeth in the effort to maintain his bow against the constant push of the blade. He was pinned to the building now between his bow and the Zanpakuto and he knew that his ability to keep the bow intact and prevent the tip from stabbing him would soon exceed his limit.

Suddenly the blade retracted, sending him crashing to the ground below. He was too disoriented and spent from deflecting the attack to be able to catch himself before falling against the hard pavement below.

Painfully he rolled over and picked himself up from the ground. As he stood, he spit out another mouthful of blood and searched for where Gin had gone to. It wasn't hard to find the former third captain as he was slowly making his way towards Ishida.

With some difficulty, Ishida summoned his bow again that had disappeared when he had fallen. Not only was he reaching his limit, but being in the real world offered far less spirit particles to draw from to create his weapon. If he were in Hueco Mundo or Soul Society, it would be far easier to find the energy that he needed, but here, he was at a disadvantage.

"That wasn't bad, Quincy," Gin told him as he continued to walk slow and steadily towards him. "I have to admit that I am rather impressed that you were able to deflect my attack."

He stopped then and eyed Ishida again. After a moment he frowned and told him, "It is a waste to kill such a young talented individual. Go home, Quincy."

"What?" Ishida asked, stunned at the comment.

"Go home, unless you wish for me to kill you."

Suddenly a blast of power erupted behind Ishida. He turned his head slightly towards that direction, but never let his guard down to the threat in front of him. "You are good, boy," Gin told him. "But you are out of your league. Your attacks are ineffective towards us at this point. You even used your most powerful attack against Aizen already before he began his transformation and it didn't even appear to harm him one bit."

Gin hopped down from the slab of pavement that he had been standing on and was now on Ishida's level and very close. "You are out of tricks, Quincy. You may profess to have hope as long as you are still alive, but clearly even you must see that it is now hopeless."

Ishida did not falter in his stance as he continued to stare evenly at Gin, but the man's words were echoing in his head. He knew that the situation was hopeless and he knew that it was highly likely that he was going to die. He wanted to give up. He wanted to be able to see Inoue again. He didn't want to die here, but he had made up his mind when he left Hueco Mundo that he was either going to be of some help here or die trying. That is what Ichigo would have done and he could expect no less from himself now that Ichigo was gone.

"For your own good… get out of here," Gin said. "You don't want to die, do you?"

Ishida narrowed his eyes slightly at Gin and asked, "Why do you care? Aizen is going to kill everyone anyway so why do you care if I leave now to live a little while longer or die trying to defend my town?"

Gin stood still for a while as if contemplating the question. Finally he began walking towards Ishida again as he reached inside his shirt and pulled out his Zanpakuto again. "I don't care," Gin told him. "If it is your wish to die now, I can certainly grant that." He pointed his sword at Ishida then, now far too close for the Quincy to be able to do anything if Gin decided to extend his blade.

Another blast of power erupted behind Ishida, but there was no way that he was going to take his eyes off Gin just now. Three bodies impacted the ground around Ishida and he realized that it was Yoruichi, Urahara, and Isshin. And now he knew what had caused that power explosion behind him. He could just sense that Aizen was now looming over him now.

"Gin," Aizen said after a moment of silence. "What were you going to do to him?"

Gin shrugged as he put his sword away again and said, "I thought to put him out of his misery is all, captain Aizen."

"I see," Aizen said and then turned away. "There is no need for that now; he is not even an annoyance to me any longer. Open the Senkaimon. We need to head for Karakura town in Soul Society. There won't be any need to destroy the Tenkai ketchu. If we are to take down the palace, it would be to our advantage to create the Ouken in Soul Society."

"Yes," Gin said and followed after Aizen, leaving Ishida still standing there.

"Wait," he said to them.

Just then Aizen's white outer covering began to crumble.

"Captain Aizen?" Gin asked.

Aizen paused and looked down at his hand. "Oh. It seems I am at the end of the chrysalis stage. Thank goodness. I will be able to witness the end of Soul Society with my own eyes."

He glanced at Ishida and the Quincy saw that Aizen's face was once again visible but his eyes were now dark purple.

Gin stabbed his sword out and turned it in the air as he said, "Unlock," and the Senkaimon appeared before him. The door slid open to allow the two to enter the precipice world.

"I will leave you here," Aizen said at the threshold as he turned to the side and addressed Ishida. "You shall be devoured when everything has ended."

With that, he turned forward again and he and Gin disappeared through the gateway. Ishida stood in place, wondering what he should do. He wondered what he possibly could do. Even if he tried to attack them right now, he would accomplish nothing. He would be killed and they would still cross over to Soul Society.

So he stood there and watched them leave. He had never felt so helpless in all of his life. He imagined that Ichigo would send in a blast of black Getsuga Tensho at this point. He would have probably destroyed the entrance with something that powerful, but Ishida didn't have that power at his disposal. He could try to shoot the gateway, but it would have no effect.

So he was still standing there, bow still out and drawn, but nothing to aim at now that Aizen, Gin, and the Senkaimon had vanished from the real world. "Uryuu!" Ishida heard a voice call behind him.

He turned as he lowered his bow and saw Isshin rushing up to him. "Uryuu, I told you to leave," he panted.

Ishida dismissed his bow and glanced back towards where the gate had just been. In the distance, he could see others stirring. Hitsugaya, Iba, and Kira were heading towards them. He looked around then and saw Urahara and Yoruichi begin to stiffly pick themselves up as well.

"Maybe I should have," Ishida said softly as he watched Urahara sit up and reached out for his hat that had been knocked from his head. "I have been of no use here."

Urahara glanced up at him as he stood. He walked over to Ishida stiffly, holding his side as he walked but not seeming terribly fazed by the whole ordeal. "That may or may not be true, Ishida-san," he told him. "But I believe that you may yet be of some help."

"Kisuke…" Isshin said with a dubious tone.

Urahara looked up at Isshin and shook his head sadly. "I know that you do not wish me to put yet another young man in danger, Kurosaki-san, but there had always been the possibility that Ichigo would not return. If that were to be the case, I began to devise some alternate plans."

Isshin glared at Urahara but then sighed and turned his back. "Do what you will, Kisuke. You always do."

Ishida looked between the two of them wondering what was going on. "Urahara-san, how can I possibly help at this point?" Ishida asked him. "My abilities are far outmatched by Aizen. I cannot even begin to touch someone with that amount of spiritual pressure."

Isshin suddenly gasped and spun around to face him. "You…" he began.

Urahara waved his hand and interrupted whatever Isshin was going to say. "In your current state, you are correct, Ishida-san. You pose no threat to Aizen, but the fact that you are able to still sense him at all means that there is a potential for you to be of great use.

Ideally, we had planned that Ichigo would be the one to finally confront Aizen, but that clearly is no longer the option. In anticipation of this, I have acquired an object that may be of use to you." Urahara turned then and waved for Ishida to follow him. "Come, we must hurry."

"Urahara," a voice called.

Urahara paused and glanced back. "Ah, Hitsugaya-san. I'm glad to see that you are still well."

Ishida turned then and noticed that there was still a bloody wound in Toshiro's shoulder. "I am sorry, Hitsugaya-san," he told the young captain with a nod towards that wound.

Toshiro shook his head and said, "I have to thank you, Ishida, for giving me this wound. It was what prevented me from killing Hinamori. If I had done that…" he glanced away and allowed the statement to hang in the air unfinished.

"Hitsugaya-san," Urahara said. "You and the vice-captains that are still relatively uninjured should hurry to Soul Society. I have one final plan to attempt against Aizen, but he is going to need to be stalled until I can enact it."

Toshiro nodded once and said, "Understood." He turned to Kira and Iba then and said, "Open the Senkaimon. Karakura still needs our protection."

"Yes," they both said as Kira opened the gateway for them.

"We'll go too," Isshin said, indicating himself and Yoruichi who was now also back on her feet.

Urahara nodded, "Good. We will see you all soon on the other side."

He turned then saying, "Quickly, Ishida-san. We have some preparations to make before we join them."

XXX

Back in Hueco Mundo, Rukia knelt beside Inoue as she worked on healing Renji and Chad. Neither of them had yet awakened, but their injuries were quickly vanishing. Isane was silently healing Rukia since her injuries were less severe than the other two and didn't require such immediate attention.

"Inoue," Rukia said softly to her after a while of silence.

Inoue looked up at Rukia reluctantly. She was having a hard time concentrating on what needed to be done at the moment and she guessed that the subject manner that Rukia wished to discuss was not going to help.

"Yes, Kuchiki-san?" she asked.

Rukia hesitated a moment when she saw the pain behind Inoue's eyes, but there was something that she needed to know the answer to. "Where is Ichigo?" she asked.

Inoue closed her eyes as she recalled what had happened after Rukia and Ishida had left her to join the fight against Yammy.

"_Please be careful, Ishida-kun." Inoue looked to Rukia then and said, "You too, Kuchiki-san."_

_Rukia nodded once in determination. "I promise you, Inoue, you won't lose any more friends today."_

_Rukia took one more look at Ichigo's body and then looked up to Ishida. They nodded to each other and then vanished from Inoue's sight, flying off to help their other friends with the monstrous Arrancar._

_Inoue sat there for a while, staring off in the distance where she could now sense her friends fighting against Yammy. She sat stilly in the sand, wringing her hands in front of her chest as she prayed that Rukia would keep her promise. _

_The waves of reiatsu that poured off of Yammy were ever increasing, very quickly overwhelming her sense of the others. "Please everyone," she whispered. "Please don't leave me too."_

_She couldn't help glancing back at Ichigo's still body at this thought. "Kurosaki-kun…" she muttered to him. She still couldn't believe what had happened even with this definite evidence in front of her._

_A tear began to brim at the corner of her but was interrupted from falling when a gentle voice called to her. "Inoue-san?"_

_Inoue gasped and looked up. She saw Unohana and Isane walking towards her. "Unohana-san…" she gasped as she wiped the tear from her eye and stood up to meet the captain. "Unohana-san… Kurosaki-kun… is there anything you can do?" she asked desperately of the captain._

_A frown pulled at Unohana's lips as she came over to kneel beside Ichigo's body. She placed a hand over the hole in his chest and another over his forehead. Her hands glowed with a dim green light for a moment as she closed her eyes in concentration. After a while, she slowly opened her eyes and pulled her hands back._

_She sighed as she stood up again and looked at Inoue, "I am sorry, Inoue-san, there is nothing that I can do for him."_

_Inoue's lip began to tremble, but she was determined not to cry anymore. She had already known the answer before Unohana had even appeared but it was still difficult to hear confirmation of the fact._

"_Unohana-san…" Isane gasped, indicating Ichigo's body. Inoue and Unohana looked down at him and both gasped. _

_His body was slowly breaking apart, disintegrating into individual spirit particles. "What…?" Inoue asked as she kneeled beside him again and tentatively reached her hand out towards him._

"_Don't touch him, Inoue-san," Unohana warned as she grabbed the girl's hand and held it back._

"_What is that? What's happening?" Inoue asked._

_Unohana shook her head, "I am not sure, but I think that his body is breaking down. It is possible that whatever he had done in his last attack was more than his body was able to handle and loosened the bonds of his spirit particles."_

_Inoue sat there and watched as little by little, Ichigo's body disappeared. Tears began to silently fall from her eyes while she watched in morbid fascination. After a short while, there was nothing left of Ichigo._

_Inoue slowly stood up and then looked at Unohana. "Please," she said to the captain. "My other friends, I think they are in trouble…"_

_Unohana nodded, "Let's go see what we can do, Inoue-san…"_

Inoue slowly opened her eyes and looked at Rukia again. "He's gone, Kuchiki-san… He didn't want to be a burden to us any longer."

Rukia stared at her a while before she lowered her eyes and said very softly, "Why do you keep leaving me, Ichigo?"

XXX

Ishida hurried after Urahara, still confused as to what the Shinigami could possibly still have up his sleeve. "Urahara-san…" he said.

"I'm very sorry, Ishida-san," Urahara said softly to Ishida as they walked. "I never meant to put you in this position, let alone so soon after such a great loss."

Ishida shook his head and said, "I understand, but I came here to take Ichigo's place. If I can help in some way, then that is what I want to do."

Urahara glanced at Ishida out of the corner of his eye from under the brim of his hat. "It is good to hear you say that, Ishida-san, because what I am about to ask of you is quite a difficult thing to ask."

Ishida nudged his glasses up his nose and said, "I would expect nothing less."

Urahara couldn't help but smile sadly at Ishida's words. He realized that the Quincy had probably comeback from Hueco Mundo with the expectation of death. That alone was an incredibly heavy burden for someone so young to carry, but Urahara wondered what Ishida would think about this plan.

He led the Quincy through the rubble of the town to the replica of his shop. Somehow the building had remained standing through out the fighting even though it was the only one still intact in the surrounding area.

Ishida glanced up at the building as they approached and paused for a moment. This was a place that he associated quite heavily with Ichigo. It was here that they would all gather before a fight or when there were things that needed to be discussed. This place had been their headquarters so to speak ever since they had all teamed up to fight hollows and Arrancars and whatever else was threatening the real world and Soul Society that day.

Ishida shook off this feeling of sad nostalgia and followed Urahara inside. He was slightly surprised when the ex-captain led him down the hatch to the basement and found the same underground training grounds there that were in the original shop.

"You even duplicated this?" Ishida asked as he hopped down from the ladder and stood on the sandy ground below.

Urahara smiled and said, "Of course! Everything is exactly how it is in the real Karakura. Except for the people of course."

Ishida shook his head, thinking that that was quite a waist of effort, but didn't say anything.

Urahara continued to lead him around and in between the rocky outcroppings in his unusual basement until he came to a rock that had a shadowy cleft at the base. He paused here and bent over and retrieved something from the cleft.

He turned then and held the object out to Ishida. His eyes seemed to be even more shadowed than normal as his now serious face looked down at Ishida. "I have been keeping this for some time now, hoping that I would never need to give it you."

He was holding an intricately carved box with a small brass latch keeping it closed. On the lid of the box was the etching of a Quincy cross.

Ishida looked up at Urahara in puzzlement. He had never expected Urahara, an ex-Shinigami, to have possession of a Quincy artifact. But, after he thought about it, he wasn't all that surprised. The man did seem to have his hand in everything.

"Open it please, Ishida-san," Urahara said gently to him.

He reached out and carefully undid the latch and opened the box. As he allowed the lid to fall back to lean up against Urahara's chest, he gave a slight gasp. He took a startled step backward away from the object that now seemed to stare back up at him.

"Where…where did you get this?" Ishida asked. He couldn't believe what he was looking at. He had thought that this object was long lost, used up already the last time that he journeyed to Soul Society.

"There has always been more than one Sanrei glove, Ishida-san," Urahara said as he reached into the box with one hand and took the white glove, trimmed in blue out of the box. He sat the now empty box down on another rock beside him and held the glove out to Ishida. "This, I believe, is what allowed you to gain enough power to match a captain before, am I correct?"

Ishida just continued to stare at that object without replying. He was remembering the time that he had wore something like this before. He had gained far more power than he had been capable of gaining on his own at the time. It was what had allowed him to feel that he could be of any help in the journey to Soul Society to rescue Rukia in the first place.

But when he found that he still didn't have enough power to take out Kurotsuchi when they met, he had foolishly taken the glove off, momentarily giving him more power than his body was supposed to be able to handle. The result had been a draw in his battle against the crazy captain and the loss of his Quincy powers.

It was only after long and dangerous training with his father that he had been able to regain those powers. But that would not be an option if he were to lose those powers again. He had made a deal with Ryuken to no longer associate with the Shinigami in exchange for that training.

But then Inoue had been captured and Ishida used a loophole in the deal to join Ichigo in her rescue. But Ishida was quite sure that Ryuken would not accept such a loophole; especially now that he was effectively taking Ichigo's place in this battle. If he were to lose his powers again, he couldn't expect help from Ryuken to regain them again.

"You know the circumstances of that battle; do you not, Urahara-san?" Ishida asked him softly.

Urahara nodded slowly. "Yes, it was the removal of the glove that allowed you to be able to effectively defeat him. Knowing Kurotsuchi as I do, I know that that means you gained a tremendous amount of power, but that power boost came at the cost of your Quincy powers."

Ishida nodded and looked up at Urahara. "That is why you were reluctant to put me in this position, isn't it, Urahara-san?"

Urahara nodded again, still holding the glove out to Ishida. "I know that the only way for you to gain that strength again is to put the glove on again and then remove it at a crucial moment. You will lose your powers again if you do this, Ishida-san."

Ishida looked into his eyes and knew that the man did not want to ask this of him, but there was little choice now. Something had to be done against Aizen and with Ichigo gone, Ishida was the only one left to step up.

He slowly reached towards the glove and plucked it from Urahara's hands. He held it for a moment, staring down at it. "Will this still be enough?" he asked.

Urahara sighed and shook his head. "I doubt it. But I believe that between the two of us, we might just be able to do enough damage to end this."

Ishida looked up at Urahara. He was still battered and singed from his last encounter with Aizen. He wondered how the ex-captain could possibly expect to be able to do something against the man.

"Trust me, Ishida-san," Urahara told him. "This is the last and best option."

Ishida nodded and then slipped the glove on his hand but paused then. "But, Urahara-san, it takes a week of training with the glove for it to reach full potential."

Urahara nodded and quickly turned away and walked out towards an open area in the practice grounds. "I have just the place to practice," he said as he walked over to the square shaped gate that he had used to send him and the others to Soul Society before. "Luckily I had brought this over from my actual shop just in case we needed it. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to cross over to Soul Society."

Ishida nodded, remembering what Urahara had explained to them before. He had said that he, Chad, and Inoue would have been unable to go into Soul Society as they were because it was a place made of spirits. They had to go through Urahara's special gate that would effectively transform them into spirits for just that journey without them having to actually leave their bodies to do so.

He watched as Urahara opened the gate before them. "Are you ready, Ishida-san?" Urahara asked him as he looked back at the Quincy.

Ishida nodded and walked past Urahara into the gateway. "Let's go," he said as he stepped into the precipice world with determination for this mission, even if it meant the loss of his Quincy powers again.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Welcome back. This chapter has a lot more new stuff than the last couple. Also, I realized after I had written it, that I put a character in a place that they weren't supposed to be. But when I thought about fixing it, I decided that it's already an AU fic anyway so I kept it as is. Sorry for breaking my own rules, but I think that it works out well this way.

Thanks again to my reviewers and to my beta, Anonymous Pride.

Chapter 5

The gate in Soul Society opened, depositing captains Soi Fon and Kyoraku into the heart of chaos. There were low ranking Shinigami rushing all about the place without order or direction as an alarm sounded in the background.

Kyoraku snagged the first one that ran in front of him by the collar and said, "Slow down. What exactly is going on here?"

The young Shinigami looked up at the captain and gasped and exclaimed, "Captain Kyoraku! What are you doing back?"

"Old man Yama-jii sent us back to protect the town," he said lazily. "Now tell us, what is going on here?"

The Shinigami stared at him dully for a moment before he seemed to snap out of his surprise at having a captain address him. "I… I'm sorry sir. It's the town. There was a disturbance in the transition and twelfth division has been having everyone work to keep it stable. They said that one of the pillars must have been destroyed and if another one went, then we would lose Karakura town."

Kyoraku nodded as Soi Fon stepped forward. "It seems that without the captains and vice-captains around, things quickly fall into disorder here."

Kyoraku glanced at her and frowned slightly as the Shinigami that had been talking to him slinked away unnoticed. "I wonder where Nanao-chan is?" he muttered as he looked around.

As if mentioning her name summoned her, she suddenly appeared beside them. "Captain Kyoraku…" she said as she adjusted her glasses and gripped the book in her arms a little tighter. "…Captain Soi Fon. Have things improved in the other world now that you have returned?"

"No," Kyoraku said as he glanced at her. "But the old man sent us back since we're the only captains still on our feet."

Nanao seemed to take this statement into stride as she began to follow the two captains while they walked away from the gate. "We need to get to the town and make sure that everything is safe there. It is likely that Aizen could be turning up here eventually."

"If you don't mind me asking, sir," Nanao said. "What can we do against Aizen if the other captains were unable to stop him?"

Kyoraku glanced back at her out of the corner of his eye and said softly, "That is a good question, Nanao-chan."

"We'll do what we must," Soi Fon said firmly. "Aizen cannot be allowed to create the Ouken."

Kyoraku nodded but changed the subject. "Nanao-chan," he said. "Go to the fourth division and gather a few volunteers to accompany us to the town. There may be some humans that have awakened by now that could need some attention and captain Soi Fon and myself are not at our peak at the moment."

Nanao discreetly glanced at the place where Soi Fon's left arm should have been, but didn't say anything and she nodded to him and then disappeared, heading off to follow her captain's orders.

"Why are you protecting her, Kyoraku?" Soi Fon asked after Nanao left. "She was the only vice-captain that didn't leave Soul Society and now you have sent her on a mission to keep her out of the town. Do you not trust your own vice-captain?"

"That's not true," Kyoraku said as if hurt. "Ukitake left his co-vice-captains behind."

Soi Fon snorted and said, "You know that those two don't exactly count."

Soi Fon glanced up at Kyoraku's face and was a little surprised at the serious expression that was there. She had always felt that her fellow captain did not take things seriously enough and was quite lazy. In fact, he reminded her a lot of Urahara and she couldn't stand that man.

But over the last several hours, Soi Fon had seen that Kyoraku was actually a very intense person when he wanted to be. The expression that he wore now was proof of that.

"I trust Nanao-chan completely," he said after a moment of silence. "But she is not the type of person that should be in battle. I made a very poor choice in judgment back when I allowed her to follow Ukitake and myself when we stood up against Yama-jii. The old man's spiritual pressure alone had nearly killed her. I will not see her put in such a situation again."

Soi Fon took her eyes from his face and stared ahead before she finally said, "You are doing the girl no favors by shielding her from battle, Kyoraku. She cannot become any stronger if you continue to do so and she will not be ready when the battle comes to her."

Kyoraku sighed and said softly, "I do not plan on allowing the battle to come to her."

Soi Fon didn't respond to this. She didn't understand how a captain that had lived as long as this one and had been a captain for that long could be so ignorant to the situation. It was highly likely that Nanao was going to be dragged into this confrontation before it was over whether he wanted her to stay back or not, but it was not her place to tell another captain how to treat his subordinates.

At the edge of Seireitei, they paused for a moment before simultaneously switching to Shunpo to make it to Karakura town faster. They had no idea if Aizen was going to turn up there, or when, but they knew that the people of that town would not stand a chance if Aizen did show up. It was likely that his very presence would kill them.

XXX

"Ishida-san, please stop," Urahara called up to Ishida.

Ishida paused and looked back at Urahara in curiosity. Urahara walked up to him calmly saying, "It appears that Aizen has made this a bit easier for us."

"What do you mean, Urahara-san?"

"This is the place that I meant for you to be able to train, Ishida-san," Urahara explained.

Ishida gasped and said, "But, Urahara-san. What about the cleaner?" He was recalling how he had nearly been caught and killed by that thing before.

Urahara glanced around and said, "It seems that Aizen must have destroyed it when he passed through this way. That in itself is quite scary, but it does make this task a bit easier. I had originally thought that we would have to come and go from the precipice world to complete your training to avoid it, but now that it is gone we can stay as long as we need."

"But aren't we in a hurry?" Ishida asked. "In a week's time Aizen will have destroyed Karakura, even with the others attempting to slow him down."

Urahara shook his head, "No. Not while we are in here. Time flows at a different pace inside the precipice world than it does outside. If we were to remain in here for 2000 hours, then only one hour would pass outside. We only need approximately 178 hours to complete your training with the glove. That also means that we have a little leeway and can work on our strategy for when we encounter Aizen."

Ishida nodded as he adjusted his glasses, "I see," he said calmly. He glanced to either side and noticed that the walls were beginning to slide in towards them. "But what about the currents, Urahara-san?"

Urahara nodded as he pulled something from his cloak. With a toss, four rods were stabbed into the walls to either side of him. Two to each side. These rods were connected to his arms by a loop of rope.

"This technique is called realm fixation. Normally, it's done with many low-ranking Shinigami working together to hold back the currents, but I should be able to do so on my own. Though, considering that I expect to be able to fight once we finish here, I will only be able to do so effectively for not much longer than a week. Otherwise I could probably exhaust myself and hold it open for many months. Luckily it will only take you a week to train as you need to and then we can use a day or so to make sure that we are completely prepared."

Ishida nodded again, "Understood," he said and turned his back on Urahara. "You are lucky, Urahara-san," he said as he summoned his bow with the glove that he now wore. He frowned slightly to himself to see that he had lost the bow that he had been using. He had found the circular form of it to be quite pleasing, but that wasn't important at the moment. "The last time that I trained with the glove, I didn't know what I was doing and it would have been extremely dangerous for anyone to be near me while I did so."

As he spoke he materialized an arrow on his bow and drew back. "This time, however," he said as he released it, sending a large, powerful arrow shooting down the corridor of the restrictive currents. "I shouldn't have as many mistakes adjusting to it as before."

Urahara smiled slightly as he watched Ishida draw another arrow. This one was even more powerful than the last one. _ I hope this works, Ishida-san_, he thought to himself. _ I would hate to have to put you through this and have it fail._

XXX

Tatsuki and Keigo were wandering about the town, bringing Chizuru and Michiru to the school when they were both suddenly brought to a halt by the overwhelming spiritual pressure that had just struck them.

Tatsuki fell to her knees and yelled at Keigo to run as Aizen advanced on her. She stared up at the man, not having any idea what she should do. She couldn't so much as move in his presence, let alone come up with some way to defend herself against him.

Suddenly a fireball burst around Aizen. "You seem in distress girl," a voice said from behind Tatsuki. She thought that she had heard that voice somewhere before, but in her current condition she couldn't place it. She glanced back as he went on to say something about a needing a hero and she realized that it was Don Kanonji.

Aizen calmly watched as Don Kanonji launched into his lengthy introduction and began to argue with Tatsuki about running away. It became clear that this human wasn't in much better condition to be standing up against him either by the way that he trembled and sweat dripped down his face. But he was at least able to remain on his feet in Aizen's presence.

Aizen was slightly amused by this man, causing him to pause in his planned destruction of Tatsuki for a moment. It looked like the man was going to try and attack him, but it was in that pause that someone else arrived, distracting Aizen from the far less significant humans.

"My, my," a voice drawled out from above. Aizen glanced up and saw someone standing in the air above the street. "These are a little beneath you at this point, aren't they Aizen?" Kyoraku asked him.

Soi Fon suddenly appeared behind Aizen and Gin at street level. "If you are searching for more worthy adversaries, we would be happy to help," she told him coldly.

With this distraction, Tatsuki tried to tell Kanonji to run again but it wasn't until another showed up behind him that he started to listen. "Run now," a voice said to him as a hand pulled him back. "We'll distract them long enough for you to take the girls and get away."

Kanonji looked back and saw Matsumoto standing there. He was going to argue again, but then he realized that Tatsuki still needed help. He reluctantly agreed and went over and grabbed both girls before running after where Keigo had disappeared a little while ago.

"I'm glad I made it in time…Aizen… Gin…" she said as she turned and faced them.

"Rangiku…" Gin said softly.

"Enough!" Soi Fon said and then launched herself at Aizen, but it was Gin that she encountered first.

"Forgetting someone, Captain Soi Fon?" he asked her around his usual fox-like grin.

"Ichimaru, stand aside," she told him. "You have remained out of things to this point; do not make matters worse for yourself by getting involved now."

"Stayed out?" he asked as if he was offended. "What a cruel thing to say. My services have simply not been needed."

"And they are not now, Gin," Aizen said as he stepped towards Soi Fon. "They were unable to reach me even before my transformation. There is nothing that they can do to me now."

"Gin!" Matsumoto called to him as she pulled her Zanpakuto out and pointed it at him.

He looked at her a moment and said, "Please forgive my former acquaintance, captain Aizen. Allow me to remove her."

"Go ahead. I will take care of this quickly," Aizen told him.

Gin suddenly launched himself at Matsumoto and grabbed her, carrying her away from the scene.

Soi Fon glanced up and realized that Kyoraku was no longer up there. Suddenly a sword sprang up from behind Aizen in the center of his shadow on the pavement, but the tip was stopped when it met his back. Kyoraku emerged from the shadow then saying, "Who boy, I didn't realize how tough you had gotten in our brief separation, Aizen."

Aizen glanced back at him and said, "You cannot touch me any longer. There is nothing that you can do here. Return to Seireitei and wait for the end, Kyoraku Shunsui."

He shook his head and said quietly, "You know we can't do that, Aizen. We cannot allow you to harm the people of this town."

"It is already decided," Aizen told him. "It is a fact. The people of this town have already been killed by myself and sacrificed for my purposes. You just don't know it yet."

Kyoraku shifted back and eyed Aizen for a moment before the transformed man spoke again. "Kyoraku Shunsui, Soi Fon," Aizen said to them as they positioned themselves to either side of him. "What do you plan to do? Even if you were able to reach me with your blades, they cannot scratch me. Neither of you have the power."

"We shall see," Soi Fon said as her sword suddenly shrank down to her tiny dagger on her finger. As soon as her Zanpakuto was unsealed, she launched herself at Aizen. Kyoraku did so as well. Aizen simply stood there and allowed them to strike him simultaneously. Both of the blades struck him, but did no damage. They both leapt back when they saw that their attacks had failed, but Aizen was too quick for them.

Even as they retreated, they began to falter and fall to the ground with deep, bloody wounds across their bodies. They stumbled and fell to the pavement, bleeding heavily, unable to move.

"Though your injuries are serious," Aizen said. "It should not be enough to kill those at your level. I have left you helpless and immobile so that you may watch the destruction of this town that I shall bring very soon."

"Aizen!" a voice screamed at him from above. He glanced up and saw captain Hitsugaya soaring in at him with his ice wings.

Aizen looked away from Toshiro as if he was insignificant and slashed his blade out to his right. There was a sudden spurt of blood in the air and a gasp of pain a moment before the air seemed to ripple and Kira appeared beside Aizen.

Kira stumbled and fell to the ground, his blood mingling with that of the two captains on the pavement.

"You did not expect me to fall for such a level of Kido, did you?" Aizen asked Kira's still form. He turned again and caught Iba as he ran at him from the other side. His sword passed through the vice-captain's stomach and out his back before Aizen pulled his blade back and allowed him to collapse beside Kira.

Just then, without looking, he brought his sword up in the air and met Toshiro's blade. "Why, Aizen?" Toshiro growled at him over their crossed blades. "Why do you continue to use her? I could have killed Hinamori…"

Aizen finally turned his gaze to Toshiro and said, "Because she allows me. She was always seeking someone to serve and I fulfilled that role perfectly. And you were meant to kill her, Hitsugaya Toshiro. It was mere luck that you did not."

Toshiro gritted his teeth a moment before pulling his blade back and taking another viscous swing at Aizen. "You are full of openings," he said softly to the young captain.

Before Toshiro even knew what had happened, he collapsed to the ground, also grievously injured from a move that he hadn't even seen.

"Shunko!" a voice rang out a split second before a crackling white energy erupted from Yoruichi's form as she descended on Aizen.

"This is pathetic," Aizen said and caught her hand in his. With a shrug, he tossed her into a building while using his other hand to catch Isshin's sword. He held onto the blade as he slowly turned and looked at the man.

"You have lost much, Kurosaki Isshin," he said to him. "Why do you continue to fight? The most important thing for you to protect is already destroyed."

Isshin ground his teeth as he said, "Whatever my son deemed important to protect is important enough for me. But that isn't something that you would understand, Aizen."

Aizen blinked at him before he slashed his open hand at Isshin, cutting through his torso. "No, it is not," he said simply as he watched this last body join the others on the ground.

He looked around at the destruction that he had just brought about and then coolly walked away from them, leaving them all to bleed out on the pavement.

XXX

Ishida dismissed his bow and turned back around to face Urahara. "I believe I am finished, Urahara-san," he told him.

Urahara was looking a little pale, but otherwise unaffected by his keeping the restrictive currents back. "Good, Ishida-san," he said. "Then there are a few other things that we must discuss before we cross over to Soul Society."

Ishida nodded and fixed his glasses as he waited to hear the rest of Urahara's plan. He was fairly certain that he wasn't going to like this much either considering Urahara had been quite silent about it up to this point. That could only mean that he feared that Ishida would not go through with it unless he was already completely committed by bonding with the glove.

"Listen carefully, Ishida-san," Urahara told him. "Because this is going to be our final chance to defeat Aizen."

XXX

Aizen was still wandering the streets, thinking of chasing after those kids and killing them, but he wasn't sure there was really a point to it. He had originally planned to use their deaths to further enrage Kurosaki Ichigo and force him down another level of evolution, but now that seemed quite pointless.

He wondered how his calculations could have gone so wrong. He had been quite certain that Ichigo would have done far better and would have at least made it to this point. To have him killed before Aizen even encountered him was more than a little disappointing.

Aizen had just turned down a corner and saw the kids and the strange man with them around the corner. He thought about killing them just because he could, but Gin turned up again just then.

"I have returned, captain Aizen," Gin said.

"You're back," Aizen said. "What about the woman?"

"I killed her," Gin replied.

"Indeed. Her reiatsu has disappeared." He paused a moment and then turned his head slightly to face Gin and said, "I'm surprised. I thought you had a little more affection for her."

As Gin explained how he had no affection and that he is and always has been like a snake, the others quickly fled down the street.

As they fled, Aizen glanced towards them and said, "My, my. I grow tired of chasing mice."

"What will you do with them after you kill them?" Gin asked.

"I will sting their bodies up on the outskirts of town where those of Seireitei can see them. Then I will get to work on creating the Ouken." He turned and pointed his sword towards the fleeing kids.

"Sounds good to me," Gin said and then reached out his hand and placed it over the tip of Aizen's blade. "In that case, I'll handle killing those kids."

"Gin…"Aizen said. But that was all the time that he had to say before Gin's sword suddenly shot out from the folds of his robes and stabbed Aizen through the heart.

Gin turned and withdrew the blade with a chip missing from the center and then explained to Aizen that he had spent decades trying to learn how to combat Aizen's Zanpakuto's ability, and now he was finally able to act. He then explained how his own sword actually worked.

"When my Bankai expands and contracts," he explained. "It turns into dust for an instant. Also, inside the blade is a powerful poison that dissolves and destroys cells. When I withdrew my sword from your chest, a single chip of my blade didn't turn to dust and was left in your heart."

He stepped forward as he finished his explanation and then held his hand in front of Aizen's chest saying, "Kill 'em, Kamishini no yari."

An explosion happened in the center of Aizen's chest, revealing the Hogyoku. Gin reached in and grabbed it as Aizen swung at him. Gin retreated, Hogyoku in hand, but missing part of his arm where Aizen had struck him.

Gin glanced back at Aizen as he began to fall and then quickly fled with the orb clutched in his hand.

XXX

"Captain Kyoraku!" Nanao's voice called out.

He groaned slightly at the sound of her voice as he tried to shift where he was lying on the pavement. He didn't want her here, especially now that he was left helpless and unable to protect her.

"Nanao-chan…"he gasped as he tried to roll over. But his movement only sent another splash of warm blood leaking onto the pavement below him.

"Captain Kyoraku," she called again and was now kneeling above him. "Hold on, captain," she said nervously. "I've brought some from the fourth division." She looked around at all of the others that had also been grievously injured. She felt a chill run down her spine at the thought that she should have been there, but if she had, she would be in the same state of all of them.

"Nanao-chan," he said softly into the pavement. "You shouldn't be here."

"Shut up, captain," she snapped at him. He turned his head just enough to be able to look up at her. "You've been protecting me for too long. Let me be your vice-captain for once." She told him sternly.

He looked at her for a long moment before he sighed and turned his head away again. "My, my, it seems that you were right, Soi Fon," he said, looking at the other captain near him.

She returned the look and simply sighed in frustration at him. Of course it would take both of them nearly being killed for him to realize that she had been right.

Just then six members of the fourth division turned up and set to work on healing the injured. One of them looked at the others and asked, "Where's Hanataro? I thought he was following us?"

Another one shrugged and said, "You know how he is. He's not nearly as fast and has a tendency to get lost."

They all shook their heads at the strange seventh seat member of their squad but put it out of their minds as they set to healing their current patients.

XXX

It didn't take Gin long to realize that his moment of triumph was short lived. He had barely gotten away and begun to examine the Hogyoku when there was a sudden wash of spiritual energy and Aizen seemed to resurrect from where he had left him.

One minute Gin was standing there holding the orb and looking up at an Aizen that resembled a butterfly now. The next, Aizen was before him, slashing him across his chest. Then, as Gin reached for the Hogyoku that had reappeared in Aizen's chest, Aizen ripped off his arm and then ran him through with his blade.

Aizen grabbed Gin's unresponsive body then and tossed him to the broken pavement beside the kids that he had been pursuing. All of the kids passed out at the very presence of Aizen.

"Gin!" Rangiku's voice cried out as she descended from above towards his inert body. He felt her tears splash on his face as he sensed her presence above him. He could hear her crying over him and all he could think of was how glad he was that he had at least gotten the chance to apologize to her before...

Aizen watched her crying over Gin's body and he was just about to put an end to her miserable existence when someone else suddenly landed beside him. He looked up and was slightly surprised to see Urahara Kisuke standing there, hand on his hat, looking at him from under the brim.

"Hello again, Aizen," Urahara said to him as he dropped his hand and looked him squarely in the eye. "Did you miss me?"

"Why have you come, Urahara Kisuke?" Aizen asked him.

"Why do you think, Aizen? Perhaps you would like to take this outside the town?"

"What a meaningless suggestion," Aizen told him. "Only someone who has the power to challenge me could have the right to ask that."

Urahara smiled at him and said, "Then this won't take long, Aizen. Indulge me this one last time before you kill me and everyone here."

Aizen's interest was piqued. He was curious why this man would suggest such a thing when it was clear that there was no way that he was going to win. There was nothing that he could possibly do at this point that could challenge him. But he was curious as to what he was going to try.

"Very well, Urahara Kisuke."

Urahara's smile vanished as he placed his hand on his hat again and then disappeared as well. A split second later, Aizen also vanished.

XXX

The others were beginning to stir again as they looked around in confusion. Rangiku was still positioned over Gin's body, tears falling from her eyes to his face. "Gin," she sobbed to him. "Why…why did you do it?"

He didn't have the strength to give her an answer as he looked up at her. He couldn't die, not like this with no one left to punish Aizen for what he had done. But there was no stopping it now. He could feel his life ebbing away with every faltering breath that he struggled for.

"Oh," a small voice suddenly said. "How'd I get here?"

Everyone looked up and saw Hanataro stumble on some loose pavement as he made his way down the street. "Where did the others go?"

Rangiku stared at him a moment before she remembered who he was. "Hanataro!" she cried and leapt up and ran to him. "Hanataro! Hurry, please!"

She gestured towards Gin. Hanataro looked and was about to hurry towards the wounded man but then he stumbled to a halt again. "Captain Ichimaru…" he muttered.

"Hanataro!" Rangiku cried as she grabbed his arm. "It doesn't matter who he is. You can't let him die!"

He looked up at her and then nodded. He quickly went over to his new patient and examined the damage. "Hanataro, is he…?" Rangiku asked softly as Hanataro reached for the hilt of his Zanpakuto. He was quite glad that he had actually thought to bring it with him this time since he normally leaves it behind.

"I don't know, Matsumoto-san," he said. "His injuries are beyond what I can heal with Kido."

Rangiku stifled another sob as Hanataro drew his Zanpakuto. "But there is one other thing I can try," he told her.

He held his blade over Gin's chest for a moment before he stabbed it down into his flesh. "Hanataro!" Rangiku screamed as she launched to grab his blade, but she stopped as she saw Gin flinch as a red smoke begin to emit from his wounds. She stared wide eyed as his wounds began to slowly heal. All the while, a red gauge on the side of Hanataro's Zanpakuto began to fill.

"Hisagomaru is a healing, Zanpakuto, Matsumoto-san," Hanataro explained.

Rangiku stood back and watched as the terrible wounds over her friend slowly closed. She gulped as she realized that his arm was not returning, but she was glad to see that the bleeding from where the rest of his arm should have been was slowing.

It took what felt like forever for the wounds to slowly close. In the middle of the process, everyone was startled at a massive explosion of power that could be seen in the distance. But it was nothing that any of them could do anything about, so they chose to ignore it for now.

Finally, Hanataro pulled his blade from Gin's chest, gauge now full. It suddenly changed and shrunk in size to appear to be a simple scalpel.

Hanataro looked at it a moment and then placed it in a pocket as he moved aside for Rangiku to descend on Gin. "Gin!" she cried. "Gin, are you all right?"

Gin shifted and then cracked his very blue eyes open a slit and looked up at her. "Rangi…ku," he muttered. He allowed his eyes to return to their normal squint, but he continued to look up at her.

"Gin," she sobbed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder. "Don't scare me like that ever again," she whispered to him. "Please, don't ever scare me like that."

Slowly, he raised up his remaining arm and placed his hand on her back. The two of them remained like that as the other captains and vice-captains that had just been healed began to gather around them.

A/N: So yes, Hanataro was not supposed to be in Soul Society but in Hueco Mundo at this time. But I had forgotten this fact when first writing since he had done so little while over there so I thought I'd be nice and give him a better role in my story

Thanks again for reviews and please continue to let me know what you think.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Welcome back everyone! Thanks for the reviews for last chapter and I am looking forward to reviews from this one since it was by far my favorite to write.

Once again, thanks to my beta, Anonymous Pride, for keeping me on track and for lovely words of encouragement.

Without further ado… here were go!

Chapter 6

Aizen appeared at the bottom of a canyon far away from the outskirts of the displaced town. He had followed Urahara there and came to a halt several meters away from the former captain. "Urahara Kisuke, why do you seek your own destruction?" Aizen asked him.

Urahara slowly lowered his hand down from the top of his hat and took a hold of the casing on his cane that sheathed his Zanpakuto. "I prefer to choose my own demise. If you are truly going to win this, Aizen, then I will die soon anyway."

"It is useless, you know," Aizen told him as he stretched his wings out behind him. "There is no possible way for you to defeat me, no matter what your schemes or plans."

"My, my," Urahara said as he pulled the casing free of his sword and tossed it aside. "You think too much of me, Aizen. Why do you always think that I am planning something?"

"Because you are," Aizen said simply. "That is your greatest asset, Urahara. Your mind was the one thing that worried me while I was still in Soul Society. But now I am beyond even your abilities."

"Then let us test that, Aizen," Urahara said as he slashed his sword towards him, releasing it to its Shikai state. "I will show you something that very few people have ever seen before," Urahara said and then turned his Zanpakuto point down and stabbed it into the ground. "Bankai," he said softly while still gripping the hilt.

Aizen raised an eyebrow at this change. "You have realized that anything less than all that you have will not reach me. But it will still not be enough," he told Urahara.

A red mist began to snake up from where the sword point was planted in the ground. It wound around the blade and then poured onto a place just in front of the sword. The mist looked as if it were being poured into a human shaped canister, as first two feet and then legs were formed out of the mist. In a short time, a misty figure stood between Urahara and Aizen. A flash of red obscured their vision then for a moment but when the light had faded, there was a woman standing where the mist had been a moment ago.

She was fairly tall with ragged short black hair with red streaks running through it. Her eyes dimly glowed red and she had fingernails painted blood red as well. She wore an A-line short skirt that looked as if it was torn at the edges that was red with black vertical stripes. Her mid drift was bare and wore a short halter top of the same color and pattern of her skirt. She stood there barefoot and in her hand she held a sword identical to Urahara's Shikai.

Urahara slowly stood up behind her, pulling his own blade free of the earth in which it had been planted. "Meet Benihime, Aizen," Urahara told him.

"Interesting," Aizen said as he eyed the woman in front of him. "Your Bankai is the manifestation of your Zanpakuto. That is a very rare."

The woman stared at him for a moment before she turned her head slightly to look at Urahara behind her. "Are you sure about this, Kisuke?"

Urahara sighed and then nodded, "There is no other way, Benihime. I suggest we get this over with quickly."

"Very well," she said as she turned around and faced her wielder. "You know the price of a quick end, Kisuke," she said.

He nodded again to her. "I do, please proceed."

XXX

Ishida stood at the top of the canyon, waiting for Urahara to return with Aizen. He wasn't sure how the ex-Shinigami planned on getting Aizen to come here with him, but he trusted that Urahara could handle at least that much.

What he didn't like was the plan that Urahara had outlined for him. He still didn't have all of the information, but he knew that Urahara planned on using his Bankai. Ishida didn't have the faintest idea what form that Bankai would take and he wasn't sure he wanted to know. The first Bankai that Ishida had ever seen was quite a terrible sight to behold and he was only able to survive it because he had the Sanrei glove that time.

Suddenly Urahara appeared in the canyon below and a moment later, Aizen joined him. Ishida couldn't believe what he was looking at when he saw the transformed Shinigami. Aizen hardly even resembled a person any longer. He had a triple set of huge, butterfly like wings on his back. The center of his chest was hollow except for four white parts that met in the center and supported the Hogyoku. His eyes were still dark purple and he appeared to have a sideways third eye in the center of his forehead.

"What has he become?" Ishida muttered as he readied himself. He watched as Urahara stabbed Benihime into the ground, calling his Bankai. He was a little under whelmed when he saw only the materialization of a woman holding an identical sword.

As Urahara stood up again behind her, Ishida noticed that they were of the same height, except she was barefoot and he was still wearing his clogs. "Is that why he wears those things?" Ishida wondered to himself. He thought it like the man to not wish to be shorter than his own Zanpakuto.

Ishida shook this extraneous thought off though as he watched the woman turn away from Aizen and walk up to Urahara. Suddenly she stabbed her wielder through the stomach, running her blade all the way through and out the other side.

Ishida gasped and stared wide eyed at what he just witnessed, but he thought back to the time in the precipice world where Urahara explained the plan to him.

"_The first thing you must know about my Bankai, Ishida-san, is that Benihime is not nice. She draws her power directly from me so please; do not be alarmed at her actions when I call her out."_

_Ishida nodded. He didn't have any idea what that was supposed to mean, but he was sure that he would figure it out when he needed to._

Even still, Ishida was stunned by the sight. She pulled the blade free and Urahara crumpled to his knees, but remained upright. Ishida wasn't sure if this was what was supposed to happen, but he knew that waiting a moment longer would mean death to his ally.

Benihime spun around and faced Aizen. There was now a red glow radiating from her and her blade and Ishida thought he heard a slight, high pitched hum coming from her. He launched himself up into the air then and fired at Aizen, drawing the man's attention to him.

Aizen looked up at the arrow that was headed his way and it fizzled and vanished before it reached him. Benihime rushed at him then but he completely disappeared before she reached him and was now standing behind Urahara. "That is a very dangerous Bankai you have, Urahara," Aizen muttered to him. "Who knew that your Bankai would demand a blood sacrifice to gain power?"

"It's more than that, Aizen," Urahara said to him. "The more vital a wound she inflicts on me, the more powerful her attack will be."

Aizen shook his head at Urahara and raised his sword. "It is still not enough. And it was rather reckless to bring the boy along."

Urahara was clutching the wound in his stomach with one hand while using his sword to support himself in the other. "Sing Benihime," he whispered towards the ground.

Just as Aizen was brining his blade down to strike Urahara, Benihime vanished from where she had been standing in a puff of red smoke and reappeared between Urahara and Aizen, catching his blade with her own.

There was an explosion of energy where their blades met, shoving both her and Aizen sliding in opposite directions. Urahara was knocked over and sent sprawled face first onto the ground.

As Aizen was sent back, Ishida drew a Seele Schneider and fired it with all the power that his glove was able to give it at Aizen. Either it was faster than Aizen had been prepared for or he felt no need to dodge it because it nicked across his shoulder before stabbing into the ground.

Aizen looked down at the slight cut in his shoulder, but even as he looked, it immediately healed over as if nothing had happened. He looked up at Ishida then with that unnerving gaze. "Your attacks are meaningless, Quincy," he told him.

He looked across to where Urahara was struggling to get up. "That is a tremendous power that your blade has gained, but now it is spent and only spared you a single blow without creating any damage. What do you plan now?"

Ishida brought another Seele Schneider to his bow. "That is useless," Aizen told him.

Suddenly Benihime was in front of Aizen, stabbing forward towards the Hogyoku. She gasped in surprise when he was able to catch her blade. He held it a moment in front of him and looked down at her. "You have more power than any other Bankai that I have encountered before besides perhaps Kurosaki Ichigo, but you still cannot reach me. It is meaningless to attempt this."

Another Seele Schneider sliced across Aizen's other shoulder and stabbed into the ground beside the first one. Aizen still held the sword in one hand as he glanced up at Ishida. "What do you hope to accomplish like this, Quincy?" he asked.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent Benihime flying through the air. She slammed into the canyon wall and a small avalanche of rocks fell with her and piled around and on top of her on the ground.

"Hado 33" Urahara called, and a blast of Kido erupted around Aizen. Just as the Kido impacted him, Ishida fired another Seele Schneider and scraped it across Aizen's leg this time. But Aizen no longer even noticed these attacks. He couldn't even feel something so insignificant to him any longer.

As the air cleared, Aizen turned to Urahara. He had managed to get back to his feet and was facing off to Aizen some distance away, hand still covering the bloody wound in his stomach. "I came here because I was curious what your new strategy was. But clearly it is no different than in the world of the living. Distraction and surprise attacks do not mean anything when nothing you can do will even reach me."

Urahara stared back at Aizen, unwavering, but did not answer. Aizen pointed a finger at Urahara and muttered, "Haien." A ball of purple Kido erupted from his finger and shot towards the ex-captain. But Urahara didn't move. Instead, Benihime was suddenly in front of him and pointing her sword at the Kido ball. It struck the tip of her blade and traveled up it as it slowly dissipated.

"You believe such a low level Kido could be used against me, Aizen?" Urahara asked him.

Aizen stared back at him for a long moment before saying, "I forgot whom I was fighting. My apologies. Perhaps this one will be high enough to crush you." He pointed his finger into the air and began the incantation.

"The oozing crest of corruption. The arrogant vessel of madness. Deny the seething urge… Stun and Flicker… Disrupt the sleep… The crawling queen of iron. The eternal self-destructing doll of mud. Unite! Repulse! Fill the Earth and know your own powerlessness. Hado number 90: Kurohitsugi!"

As Aizen began the lengthy incantation, Ishida realized that they were out of time. He could feel the power that Aizen was gathering tingling along his arms and knew that Urahara would not be able to dismiss this attack like the last one.

As Ishida prepared for what he needed to do, he could once again hear his grandfather's voice in his head…

"_A time will come when you must cast yourself into a fight far beyond your abilities. When that time comes, use the Spirit Scattering Gauntlet. However, I will say it again. Once you put it on you must never remove it."_

Ishida closed his eyes briefly and whispered, "I'm sorry Sensei. Just once more I must disobey you." Ishida reached up and snapped his glove off. A flash of blue light erupted from his glove as it disintegrated from his arm. A moment later, he was engulfed in a column of blue hued light as the spirit particles that the glove had been gathering were released. The energy swirled around him a moment before it cleared. Ishida stepped forward, in his Letz Stil form with a blaze of energy reaching to the sky from his right shoulder.

The memory drifted back to him of his conversation with his grandfather…

"_But you know, Uryuu, try to understand your father's position. When what you want to protect it different, naturally your sense of justice differs too. That is the way of things."_

"_What father wants to protect? What is it? Money?"_

"_One day you will know. When you do, you will also know what you truly want to protect. For that day, Uryuu, I am giving this to you."_

"Even now, I still don't know what father wants to protect," Ishida said, bringing his fingers to the spirit string of his bow. "But I do believe I know what I truly want to protect, Sensei."

Slowly he began to draw back on the sting. He repeated to himself the very words that Ichigo had once spoken to him….

"_I can't talk big about protecting everyone in the world or anything like that… but… I'm not so conservative to say that it's good enough to protect only those I can hold in my arms either. I want to protect as many people as I can!"_

He thought back one more time to what Urahara had said to him in the precipice world.

"_Once I use my Bankai," Urahara explained. "You are going to need to do what you can to draw Aizen's spirit particles from him."_

_Ishida raised an eyebrow and asked, "Isn't that going to be a bit difficult?"_

_Urahara smiled and said, "I'm sure you can come up with something, Ishida-san."_

As Ishida drew back on his bow, bits of spirit particles began to fly up towards him from the three Seele Schneider that were in the ground around Aizen as well as the three spots on Aizen that those blades had struck. The Quincy gritted his teeth as he drew in more and more energy from Aizen himself, holding more power inside that single arrow and his own body than he had ever before attempted.

A trickle of blood began to flow from his nose as deep gouges and cracks appeared along the skin on his arms and fingers that oozed more blood. His arms were trembling and he was becoming light headed as the energy burned him from the inside out. But Ishida continued to draw every last bit that he could possibly take from Aizen.

Aizen finished his incantation and a black tower of Kido erupted from the ground around Urahara and Benihime. Urahara frowned as he looked to either side of him. He knew there was no way that he could disrupt this level of Kido. He glanced up as the tower began to close around him and his eyes met Ishida's.

Urahara felt for the young man at that point as he saw the strain that he was putting himself through to be able to do as much damage as he could. He had already removed his glove and was preparing to fire his final arrow.

Benihime also looked up at the Quincy. Just as the Kido was closing around her, she pointed her blade up towards Ishida. The second that the tower had been sealed, Aizen started to turn away, satisfied that he had just finished off Urahara, but Ishida fired that final arrow at that moment, shooting past Aizen and shattering the walls of the spell that he had just created. Aizen was momentarily startled that the Quincy was able to create something powerful enough to break his 90's level Kido spell.

As the arrow shattered the spell, it continued on and struck the tip of Benihime's upraised sword. She staggered backward as it hit and diffused down her blade and seemed to soak right into her. She bent over slightly as she began to radiate first the blue hued light of the arrow but then it morphed into her own red hue.

As the energy crackled along her skin, now completely red, she stood up straight again and stared at Aizen with brilliant glowing red eyes. "What is this?" Aizen asked as he looked at her.

"Benihime's ultimate ability," Urahara said. He stepped up behind her and then said softly to her, "Invert."

Benihime vanished from where she was standing and was now nose to nose with Aizen. She had grown to his height and in a brief second, she took on first his mass and then morphed into a mirror image of him. Finally, her colors inverted so that she was now his opposite.

"What…?"Aizen asked, but Benihime took a step forward then and merged with him. As she did this, there was a massive explosion of energy. It sent a huge mushroom cloud of fire, dirt, and smoke high into the air that could be seen by those in Karakura town.

Urahara was knocked backward and slammed into a rock wall. But he had put up a shield of Kido just before the explosion so he was protected from the energy and flames. Ishida had been high enough and far enough away that he was able to avoid the explosion all together.

Still, when the heat began to dissipate, Ishida used the last of his energy with a burst of Hirenkyaku to make it down into the canyon and find Urahara. "Urahara-san!" he called through the fall out of dirt and smoke.

"Here," Urahara called weakly with a cough.

Ishida stumbled blindly forward until he reached out and grabbed Urahara's hand. He pulled the man up from the ground where he had crumpled after hitting the rock wall. "Did it work?" Ishida asked him as they tried to peer through the debris.

"We will soon see," Urahara said to him as Ishida pulled his arm around his shoulders to help support him. Urahara was gripping his stomach wound tightly again and having difficulty standing on his own any longer. That last explosion had knocked his hat from his head, leaving him looking even more vulnerable.

Ishida was also feeling extremely weak and spent. He could feel his powers falling away from him, being burned up from that last tremendous shot that he had just released. It had been far more powerful than anything that he had ever done before and he was quite surprised that even handling that amount of energy hadn't killed him on the spot. It had been like controlling a hundred bolts of lightening all at once.

Slowly the dust settled and they were able to see a giant burnt out crater at the center of the canyon where Aizen had been standing. There was still a plume of dust hanging in the center of the crater.

Suddenly, Aizen stumbled out from this plume of dust, coughing and looking more than a little singed. His outer white shell was crumbling but his skin beneath didn't appear to have been touched at all in the explosion. He was gripping his broken Zanpakuto in his hand as he looked up at Ishida and Urahara.

"Urahara Kisuke," he said. "Ishida Uryuu, you lose." He held what was left of his blade out towards them. "Observe. My Zanpakuto is fading away." The remainder of the blade was, in fact, crumbling into dust. "This means that the Hogyoku has determined I have no need for a Zanpakuto!"

Ishida felt a wave of despair as he listened to Aizen and saw that he didn't appear to have taken nearly enough damage in that final attack. "Even now, Quincy, you are losing your powers and you, Urahara, are dying from the very attack that you tried to use on me. I have evolved past you, past anything that ever has been or shall be!"

Urahara lowered his head as if he no longer wished to look at Aizen.

"It's over!" Aizen yelled at them.

Suddenly there was a flash of red as a spear of energy erupted from Aizen's chest. He gasped and stared down at it as Ishida looked on in wonder. Several more spears burst out in the shape of a cross around the Hogyoku. "What is this!" Aizen exclaimed. "Kido? When was I attacked?"

"Seems it's finally taking effect," Urahara said as he still faced the ground. Slowly he raised his head and looked at Aizen.

"Urahara Kisuke, this is your doing?"

"Yes," he replied. "Before you were able to completely transform, when you were most vulnerable, I planted that Kido into another Kido and shot it into your body. It's a seal. I figured that once you fused with the Hogyoku killing you would be nearly impossible. So I invented a new Kido to seal you off."

"Is that so?" Aizen said to him. "I hate to disappoint you but I am still about to evolve even further! You can't seal me off with this level of Kido!" But even as he spoke, more of his outer casing shattered and was now crumbling off of him in earnest now. "What?" he exclaimed, unable to comprehend what was happening to him.

"It is the Hogyoku's will," Urahara said. "The reason the seal that I shot is only taking effect now is because your powers have weakened." He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Ishida and said, "It is because Ishida-san fought so hard to help me that it was able to take effect. His final attack was drawing energy directly from you, lowering it slightly.

He then shot that energy at Benihime who is able to absorb any energy that is thrown at her and not only use it, but understand its makeup. She took in all of that energy from you and then was able to create an inversion field of that energy. That is what she does. Once she completely understands a person's reiatsu, she can invert it and create annihilation by merging with that person. It is like matter and anti-matter coming together. If she is at the same level or greater than the person that she merges with, then there is nothing left of them. But it seems that you were still slightly higher than her even with the power that Ishida-san took from you and gave to her. But you were pushed to your limit. The Hogyoku is saying that it does not recognize you as its master."

Aizen stared at his bare hand and said, "That's absurd. That can't be. There's no way!" He doubled over and suddenly the spears of red light that were stabbed through his body erupted into cross like spikes from his back. He began to struggle to be able to stand up straight again and look Urahara in the eyes. Red vines began to grow from the ground, winding around his body and encasing it inside. "Urahara… Urahara Kisuke!" Aizen gasped at him. "I despise you! With your great intellect, why won't you take action? Why do you subjugate yourself to that thing?"

"That thing?" Urahara asked softly as the red energy was wound up to Aizen's neck. "You mean the Soul King?" Urahara bowed his head slightly and said, "I see. You saw, didn't you?" He looked up at Aizen again. "Without the existence of the Soul King, Soul Society would split apart. The Soul King is the keystone. Without the keystone in place it would fall apart easily. That's how the world is."

"That's an argument a loser would make!" Aizen yelled at him. The spikes in his back joined together and formed three larger cross shaped spikes. "A victor must always speak of how the world should be rather than how the world is!" He began to tear at the Kido around him, breaking his arms free in his desperate struggle for a moment. But the Kido erupted around him, completely encasing him, cutting off his last exclamation. When the process completed, all that remained in the center of the crater was three large cross shaped spears driven into the ground.

A hush descended over the canyon for a moment as Ishida and Urahara stared at the result of their hard work. Suddenly Urahara gasped as he clutched his wound again and pitched forward, dragging Ishida down with him. Ishida struggled to keep them from falling flat on the ground and managed to control their fall so that he was kneeling beside Urahara as he sprawled on the ground.

"Urahara-san!" Ishida exclaimed. He placed his hand on the exit wound on Urahara's back and pulled his hand away covered in blood. He could see blood beginning to pool around Urahara's body on the ground around him from the wound in his front. "Urahara-san!" Ishida called again, realizing how serious the situation had become, but as he called out a second time, he felt a jarring pain inside of him, causing him to gasp and catch himself from falling over with his hands on the ground. His own powers were fading fast.

"That far gone, are you, Kisuke?" a voice said above them.

Ishida looked up weakly and saw Benihime standing over them, looking down at Urahara. "You did let this go a bit long this time," she chided him.

Urahara turned his head so that he was looking up at her. "So, you did save a little bit for me, did you?" he asked her.

She nodded and then knelt beside him. She reached down and pulled him up so that he was sitting on the ground in front of her. "No," he said to her once he was upright. "Not me."

"Kisuke?" she asked him confused.

He turned painfully as another gush of blood leaked from his injury and he reached out and touched Ishida's forehead. "Balance, Benihime."

"Kisuke!" she exclaimed as Ishida stared at him wondering what it was that he was doing.

Urahara turned and looked at her. "Do it," he told her sternly.

She stared back at him a moment as her eyes suddenly began to glow red again, but he did not relent to her glare. Finally she sighed and shook her head. "You surprise me, Kisuke. And that is saying something." She turned to Ishida then and reached out her hand towards him.

"Take my hand, Quincy," she told him.

Hesitantly, he reached out and placed his hand in hers. She suddenly burst into red mist and rushed into his body. He gasped in surprise, but as soon as she had passed into him, he began to feel more stable. He realized that the burning inside of him from the massive power overload was subsiding and the imbalance of his powers was righting itself.

He looked up at Urahara in shock when he realized exactly what was happening. "How…" he muttered to him.

"Benihime usually will retain just enough energy after her attacks to be able to heal the wounds she had to inflict on me. But I have told her to use that energy to balance your own powers before they completely disappear. They should return to the level that they were before you put the glove on again."

Urahara gasped again as he slumped forward. Ishida reached out and grabbed his shoulders saying, "Urahara-san! You're dying, why would you do that?"

Urahara cracked a slight smile and said, "Can't you tell, Ishida-san? There are others coming this way. They can help me but only Benihime could help you."

His eyes began to roll back then as he let out another half groan, half sigh. Ishida carefully helped him to lie back on the ground. Now that Urahara mentioned it, he could sense several other high level Shinigami coming towards them. But Ishida feared that they may not reach them in time with how quickly Urahara was fading now.

"Urahara-san, hold on!" he said. He looked down at the wound in his stomach and was suddenly reminded of the hole that had been blasted through Ichigo's chest. Ishida had to blink back a rush of emotion at that thought. "Please, I can't lose another friend, Urahara-san," he muttered as he placed his hand over the wound again and pressed on it, hoping to slow the bleeding at least a little.

Urahara gasped in pain with the pressure and his eyes fluttered before they drifted closed again. "Urahara-san…Urahara-san!" Ishida called to him, but there was no longer any response from him. "No… Please, Urahara-san!"

He could feel his throat constricting as he realized that if Urahara died, this would also be his fault. If Urahara hadn't been so worried about him, he could have been healed by now. It was all because he had been hesitant to lose his powers again that Urahara had sacrificed his best chance at being healed and was now about to die if the others didn't hurry up.

How he wished that Inoue was with him right now. Urahara, unlike Ichigo, was not dead yet. But if something wasn't done soon, he would be.

"Please, Urahara-san. Don't do this to me," he practically whispered to the man.

Suddenly Toshiro appeared beside them, followed by Soi Fon and then Kyoraku.

"Woo boy," Kyoraku muttered as he looked down at Urahara. "You certainly did it this time, Kisuke."

Nanao was next to appear beside them. She quickly took the situation in and pushed her captain out of the way as she knelt beside Urahara on the opposite side of Ishida. "Get someone from the fourth division," she snapped at the captains as she took Ishida's hand away and placed her own over top of the wound. Her hand began to glow with a greenish hue as she began to heal him.

No one reacted to her command right away and she turned her head up and met her captain's eyes. "I can keep him stable, but I can't heal him by myself! Go get help unless you want to watch him die!"

"Yes sir!" Kyoraku said to her only half in jest. In reality he was quite startled with the way that she was suddenly taking control of the situation. He suddenly vanished from sight as he left to do as she had said.

"Nanao-san," Ishida said to her. "Is he…"

"Like I said," Nanao told him as she concentrated on the patient before her. "I should be able to at least keep him alive until my dunce of a captain can bring someone else to heal him." She glance up at Ishida's worried face. She saw a little of herself in that face when she had heard that Lisa had left on a dangerous mission. She knew that she shouldn't worry about her friend, but she couldn't help it. Especially not when her captain had also seemed nervous about it.

"Don't worry, Quincy," she said to him softly. "He'll be all right. I guarantee it!"

He looked at her and nodded, accepting her word. She felt a little bad for giving him the same words that her captain had given her when saying that Lisa would return. Lisa never did return to them.

A/N: yeah, I know that a Zanpakuto is supposed to have a slightly altered name when in Bankai, but as I am not great with Japanese, I decided to forgo making that up on top of the entire move.

Also, there is only one chapter left so this will be coming to a close very soon. Thank you all for the reviews thus far. It is so good to see that people are enjoying this little exercise of mine ;)


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: here we are, end of this story. Another thank you to my Beta, Anonymous Pride, as well as a thanks to everyone that has stuck with it and thanks also to those that have reviewed.

Stay tuned to the ending notes for a special offer from me to you… Until that point, enjoy!

Chapter 7

Hanataro found himself in the middle of the forest somewhere between Seireitei and Karakura town. He had heard the others discussing how Urahara and the Quincy had somehow managed to seal Aizen, but not kill him.

Hanataro wanted to get out of there quick before he was dragged into helping to move Aizen to stand trial back at Central 46. But leaving on his own had gotten him quite lost now. "Oh…" he sighed as he looked around. "Now how did I get here?"

He walked on, down the dark and lonely path through the woods. "I'm sure I didn't pass this way before so which way do I go now?" He suddenly stopped in his tracks as he thought he heard a noise off to his right through the dense foliage.

"H…H…Hello?" he called. "Is…is anyone there?" He stood there, trembling slightly as he stared into the dark undergrowth. After a while of nothing, he sighed to himself and decided that he was just hearing things. He turned and began to walk down the path again.

As soon as his back was turned, though, something burst from the woods behind him and lunged for him. Hanataro heard the noise and spun around. He cried out as he was just able to bring his arm up to block the swipe from the massive paw that came at him.

He was thrown back to slam into a tree with a gash across his arm. He lowered the arm and looked up at the large panther shaped hollow that was now stalking him. "Oh…oh no," he muttered as he slowly used the tree to help him to stand up. "N…nice…nice kitty," he said to the thing. His uninjured hand was fumbling with his empty sheath for his Zanpakuto. He had a moment of panic when he realized that his blade wasn't there.

The hollow was now crouched in front of him, preparing to pounce. Hanataro was just about convinced that he had once again left his Zanpakuto behind when he suddenly remembered where it was. "Oh!" he exclaimed and reached into his pocket.

He pulled it out just at the hollow was leaping at him. He slashed the tiny scalpel towards the cat-like hollow, sending a blast of red energy at it. The energy caught the hollow in the chest in mid leap and sent it flying backward before it disintegrated with a howl.

Hanataro stood there a moment, staring at the place where the hollow had just been. He glanced down at his Zanpakuto and muttered, "Thank you, captain Ichimaru-san," before he promptly passed out.

XXX

"Achoo!" Gin sneezed. He sniffed but was unable to wipe his nose because his one remaining arm was tied securely to his side.

"Third squad captain Ichimaru Gin," a voice said behind one of the screens inside Central 46. "You have been accused of treason and conspiracy against the Seireitei and Soul Society. How do you plead?"

Gin frowned slightly before he spoke. "Guilty."

"Gin!" Rangiku cried out.

"You will be silent!" one of the voices snapped at her. "We should not have even allowed you to be present for this, Vice-captain Matsumoto, but you claimed to have testimony for this case."

"I do," she said stepping forward. She glanced over at Gin, but he refused to meet her eyes. "Captain Ichimaru was not working with Aizen," she told them. "He was in fact trying to find a way to kill him."

"But he still broke his vows as a captain!" a voice called out.

"He attacked members and allies of Soul Society!" another voice said.

Rangiku shook her head and said, "But he didn't kill anyone. If he hadn't attacked them, Aizen would have surely killed them!"

"Rangiku," Gin said softly to her as the voices continued to call out around them, condemning Gin's actions. "Why do you try to argue for me? Everything they say is true."

She looked at him and gave him a stern glare before she told him, "Because all of this is my fault, Gin. You did all of that to punish Aizen for what he did to me. If I hadn't been so weak to allow those men to take my soul energy, you never would have had the need to do any of this."

As she spoke, the voices of central 46 died down and were listening to her.

"Is this true, Captain Ichimaru?" a voice asked when she finished.

Gin looked up towards where the voice came from before he spoke. "Partly," he replied evenly. "I would never have pitted myself against Aizen if I hadn't had such a reason to punish him. But I also would never have even become a Shinigami. That was the sole reason that I joined your ranks."

There was a gasp of surprise and then a moment of silence before the lead voice spoke again. "Ichimaru Gin," he said. "You are hereby found guilty of treason against Soul Society."

"No!" Rangiku cried, but her exclamation was ignored as the voice continued on.

"But, because of the circumstances and because you never actually commit any murder or permanent damage, your sentence will be loss of you captaincy and ten years served in service to the fourth division. At which time, you may reappear before us and your case may be reexamined."

Gin seemed more than a little surprised as he stared up into the rises of screens that hid the faces of his accusers. "Dismissed," the voice said as a guard came forward and untied Gin's arm.

He brought his hand up and stared at it.

"Gin!" Rangiku cried and rushed over to him. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Gin, I am so sorry… it was all my fault… I…"

"Rangiku," Gin said to her as he pushed her back with his hand. "Even after everything that I did… after what I put you through… you forgive me?"

"Of course!" she cried. "Gin… Gin, I couldn't believe it when Isane first told all of the captains and vice-captains of you treachery. It never really sunk in, even when I had you at the point of my sword and then watched you leave with Aizen to Hueco Mundo. I couldn't believe that I had been so completely mistaken about you, Gin…"

Gin looked away. "Rangiku…you were mistaken…"

She smiled and shook her head, "No, I wasn't. I always knew that you were a snake. It was that snake that I fell in love with, Gin. I just had never expected you to strike at me. And it turns out that you never did."

He stared at her for a long moment in astonishment. She laughed at him and then kissed him swiftly on the lips. "It doesn't happen often," she told him. "But I love it when I can surprise you, Gin."

She turned then and exited Central 46, leaving Gin to stare after her in bewilderment. "So, I guess you can still say it, Rangiku… even though I am that snake."

He shook his head to himself before he followed her outside. He looked up at the clear sky overhead for a moment wondering what had just happened. As he stood there, he heard a commotion in the central 46 chambers behind him. He knew exactly what was causing that commotion a moment later.

"We will now pass judgment!" Gin heard a voice declare. He lingered at the door and listened to what was happening. "Former Squad 5 captain Aizen Souske we sentence you to the lowest level of the underground prison 8: Muken, where you will remain for 18,800 years!"

"Che," Gin muttered as he frowned at what he was listening to.

"I see." Aizen's slick voice uttered from the other side of the door. "The likes of you, passing judgment on me? It strikes me as a bit comical."

"Traitor!" Another voice cried. "Pushing your luck just because you are immortal! Restrain his eye and mouth immediately!"

"Increase his sentence to 20,000 years!"

"Yes, yes!"

Gin sighed and walked away towards his new barracks. He had thought to leave Seireitei now Aizen had been taken care of and he had been demoted so. He had never wanted to be a Shinigami in the first place after all. But now he realized that he couldn't leave. Sentencing Aizen to prison, even for 20,000 years, was not the solution that he had been after.

True, if it stuck, it would be quite a terrible sentence. But Gin knew Aizen. He knew that there was no way that Aizen could be contained for that amount to time. He had to stay now if only to keep an eye on the most dangerous prisoner that Seireitei had ever housed. And when Aizen broke out, not if, he would be the one to make sure that the man didn't have the chance to make central 46 regret not sentencing him to death in the first place.

"I guess I will get a second chance at you after all, Aizen," he said as he walked down the streets of Seireitei.

XXX

Slowly Urahara opened his eyes. He squinted up at the bright light that was streaming into the window beside him and let out a slight moan as he turned his head away from it.

"Urahara-san?" a voice said.

He cracked his eyes open again and saw Ishida standing up from a chair that he had been sitting on. There was more movement about the room as he realized that others were standing up from where they had been sitting whether it be on the floor or in another chair.

He vaguely recognized this place as being part of the fourth division barracks. Apparently he had been brought there after he had passed out.

Inoue, Chad, Rukia, and Renji were all present in his room. He blinked and thought that he saw a blur of movement at the doorway but when he looked again, there was no one there.

Ishida followed Urahara's gaze and said, "Yoruichi-san was here a moment ago."

Urahara nodded. He hadn't expected her to hang around long after he woke up. She was probably forming a few choice insults for him for when he returned to his shop again.

"Urahara-san," Inoue said as she came up and stood beside him. "It's good to see you're awake again, Urahara-san," she said to him and gave him a watery smile.

"Yeah, you had us all quite worried," Renji said. "From what Ishida told us, you were pretty stupid back there."

Ishida cast a glare at Renji but then shook his head and turned to Urahara, "Abarai is correct, Urahara-san. That was a very stupid move that you made."

Urahara sighed and then struggled to sit up. Inoue was quick to help him and piled another pillow on his bed to aid him. "It all seems to have turned out all right," Urahara said. "You didn't lose your Quincy powers again and I'm still here, so it would seem."

He glanced down at himself and frowned slightly at the white outfit that he was wearing. He reached up and touched the top of his head as if looking for his hat and his frown deepened when he didn't find it there.

"Here, Urahara-san," Chad said as he plucked the hat from a small table and handed it to Urahara. "It was found after you were brought back here."

"Ah, thank you Sado-san!" Urahara exclaimed as he took it and placed it on his head again.

They were all silent for a moment before Urahara asked, "How long was I out?"

"Three days," Rukia told him. "But we only just arrived from Hueco Mundo. It was Inoue that finally finished healing you."

Urahara turned to Inoue and nodded to her, "Ah, thank you Inoue-san," he told her. She gave him a half smile but it quickly returned to a frown.

"Inoue-san," Urahara asked her. "What is it?"

She looked away a moment. When she looked at him again, she had tears in her eyes. Ishida moved over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Urahara was a little surprised at this act, but he didn't make a comment for now.

"Urahara-san," Inoue said to him. "Why… Why couldn't I heal Kurosaki-kun?" A few more tears began to leak from her eyes as she spoke.

Urahara sighed and leaned back against his pillows. "So, you did try to heal him then?" he asked her.

She nodded. Urahara had not received any of the information about the incident since there was far too much happening. He had only heard that Ichigo was killed.

"Let me ask you, Inoue-san, have you gained any further understanding of how your power works?" he asked her.

She blinked and then nodded slowly. "Yes, it… it's the ability to reject reality."

He nodded. "Yes, that is true. That means that whenever you use your power, you are effectively changing reality."

"I understand that, Urahara-san," she told him. "But how come I was unable to change reality when I tried to heal Kurosaki-kun?"

"Let me ask you one more question, Inoue-san. Have you ever heard of the theory of alternate realities?"

She didn't respond right away so Ishida spoke up and said, "Isn't that a thought that for every decision and action made, there is another reality created where the opposite happened?"

Urahara nodded. "Yes, but I doubt very much that it pertains to every decision and action. What I believe happens when Inoue-san uses her power is she effectively creates one of these alternate realities. There is on reality where she rejects what happened and one where reality stays the same."

"But…Urahara-san," she said softly. "My power has never failed before. So how could that be? Wouldn't it have failed at some point before if that were true?"

He shook his head, "Not if that incident was the creation of a new reality."

They all exchanged glances before Rukia asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean…"Urahara told her. "…That what we are experiencing now, the events that have unfolded since Inoue-san attempted to heal Kurosaki-san, are all a part of an alternate universe."

"Do you mean that Kurosaki-kun is still alive out there?" Inoue exclaimed.

"Most likely, yes," Urahara said. But he held up a hand to forestall their excitement. "He is now a part of another reality. That means that he is still dead in this one."

Their faces all fell again at his words. "So there's nothing left to do?" Rukia asked softly.

Urahara shook his head sadly, "I'm afraid not. Frankly, I am rather surprised that our current reality still exists. It's my theory that when one of these alternate universes form, they are probably quite unstable and eventually collapse in on themselves in preference for the correct one. But clearly we are now a part of a stable reality since we are all still here."

"But Ichigo isn't…" Rukia muttered.

"No," Urahara said softly as he looked at her. "He isn't and for that I am extremely sorry."

"Urahara-san," Ishida said as he tightened his grip around Inoue a bit more. She had started to softly cry into his shoulder. "It was not your fault."

Urahara looked up at Ishida and then looked away towards the window before he replied, "No, I suppose technically it wasn't. But it was my arrogance that had pushed him to constantly better himself. I kept forcing more responsibility on him and it was me who helped him to go to all of those places where he was always getting hurt. It was only a matter of time before he came up against something that he couldn't handle."

Ishida shook his head and said, "No, it wasn't you who pushed him. It was Aizen."

Urahara snapped his gaze back to the Quincy. "Aizen told me how he had been manipulating the fights that Ichigo fought in an effort to push his evolution. He had hoped to create the perfect person to test his new powers out against."

Urahara stared at Ishida for a moment before he shook his head and said, "I knew he was terrible, but I never realized that Aizen was capable of something like that. It seems that I really had underestimated him."

"Not so much," Renji said. "You did manage to seal him away after all."

Urahara looked up and half smiled at Renji, "True." He looked over at Ishida and said, "With some help of course."

Ishida nodded to him but didn't say anything. "Now what do we do?" Inoue finally broke the silence again as she shifted in Ishida's grip. "Where do we go from here?"

"Forward," Urahara told her. "We have suffered a great loss, as well as found a great victory. But there will still be more trials to overcome and more victories to seek. As painful as our grief is right now, we can't let it hold us back."

Rukia was the first to straighten at his words and said, "Yes, that's what Ichigo would want. He wouldn't want us to become weak just because he's gone."

"That's true," Chad said softly as he also pulled himself up from his depressed slouch.

Inoue glanced up at Ishida and then turned to the others and said, "Kurosaki-kun wouldn't want us to feel sad. He would want us to continue on and find our own happiness." She leaned away from Ishida then, but as his hand slipped down from her shoulder, she grasped it in her own and squeezed it tightly.

He looked down at her and smiled before he said, "Ichigo would be glad to hear you say that Inoue-san. And I believe that you are all correct. To continue to live and grow is what he would want for us and that is what I intend to do."

But Inoue still had one more unanswered question. She turned to Urahara again and asked, "Why did Kurosaki-kun's body vanish?"

He looked at her a moment and then asked her to explain what she meant. She described what had happened just after Unohana and Isane had found her with his body in Hueco Mundo. Urahara listened and then was silent a moment as he thought.

"I wonder…"he muttered softly.

"What?" Ishida asked him.

"Well," Urahara said. "I wonder if it is possible that what was left of our Kurosaki, migrated to the correct universe. I would think that, even though he has already passed on here, that the amount of energy that his body still contained would be enough to heal another one. His death here, may have given him life in another reality…"

They all looked at each other, not sure how to take that information.

Urahara waved his hand and said, "But it doesn't really matter, does it? We are all still here and we have decided to move on with our lives as they are. It is probably for the best that his spirit form didn't linger here, taunting us with what could have been and might have been."

They all nodded and then decided to turn the subject.

They stood around Urahara's bed for a while longer, reminiscing of the good times that they had shared with Ichigo and telling stories of their experiences with him. They shared with each other all of the things that they had most admired about him and why he had been such a good friend to all of them.

After awhile, their speech dried up and they began to file out of the room one by one to let Urahara rest some more. Finally, Inoue gave Ishida's hand another squeeze before she pulled away from him and left. Ishida and Urahara were the only ones left in the room then.

"Urahara-san," Ishida said once they were alone. "Why did you make Benihime balance my powers instead of heal you?" he asked him.

Urahara leaned back against the pillows a moment and closed his eyes before he spoke. "I think I already answered that question back in the canyon, Ishida-san."

Ishida shook his head, "No, you gave me some logic that you thought would keep me from asking the real reason."

Urahara opened his eyes and looked at Ishida before he smiled and said, "I see that keeping things from you is most difficult, Ishida-san."

"What was the real reason, Urahara-san?" he persisted.

"It was because I didn't want to ruin another young life," Urahara said quietly towards the ceiling. "Too many young people that have crossed paths with me have either had their lives turned upside down or, in the case of our friend Kurosaki, lost them. I did not want to be responsible for yet another disrupted life."

Ishida turned his head away and adjusted his glasses before he said, "It would not have been your fault. I knew what it was that I was getting into when I accepted that glove from you. I had been prepared to accept the consequences."

"Still," Urahara sighed and leaned further back into his stack of pillows. "I am glad I made that decision. With the loss of our friend, Karakura town is going to need another to take his place."

Ishida closed his eyes a moment before nodding and turning away. "That was what I had expected you to say, Urahara-san." He walked towards the doorway then and paused before exiting. "I may need your help to be ready for this," he said softly without turning back around.

"You didn't even need to ask, Ishida-san," came the reply.

Ishida nodded before adjusting his glasses one more time and left Urahara alone in the room. The ex-captain sighed and leaned back against the pillows as he let his mind start to formulate calculations. _If I could just figure out which dimension that I need…_ he thought to himself before fatigue finally over came him and he drifted back to sleep.

A/N: The END!

And yes, a sequel is in the works and will probably be the next thing that I get out. But for after that, I am going to open up the door for some ideas. I have rolled my trusty 20 sided die and have come up with an undisclosed number. The review number that I receive after posting this chapter that matches the dice I will send a PM to asking for a request on what you would like to see me write next.

Assuming this goes well, I will do multiples of that number as well. For example, if I rolled a 10, then the 10th review I receive will get to request a story as well as the 20th and the 30th and so on. So, get reviewing to put your request in. Oh, and make sure that your reviews are signed so that I can actually get a hold of you to let you know you won!

Thanks all for reading!


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